Thaindian News

Lucknow, March 7 (IANS) Hundreds of Samajwadi Party (SP) activists were baton-charged and detained Monday in Uttar Pradesh as they launched a three-day protest against Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), clashing with police and disrupting traffic.

Under the campaign, “BSP hatao, Pradesh Bachao (Remove BSP, save the state)”, SP activists, including women, took to the streets across the state and appealed to the public to dethrone the BSP in the next assembly elections in 2012.

In Lucknow, several SP leaders, including Bhagwati Singh and Shivpal Yadav, were detained as they tried to lead a march of partymen demonstrating against the “anti-people” policies of the BSP. Police baton-charged the protesting party workers near the Parivartan Chowk crossing in Lucknow.

“Several of our senior leaders, including Bhagwati Singh and Shivpal Yadav, were intentionally targeted at the behest of the Mayawati government that is trying to suppress our agitation by violent means,” SP spokesperson in state Rajendra Chaudhary told reporters here.

“The government is misusing the state machinery to detain our party MLAs across the state as it fears it would be dethroned if such demonstrations are carried out to expose its misdeeds,” he said.

According to reports, SP activists carried out demonstrations on rail tracks in Banda district where they also stopped a train.

Likewise, in Lakhimpur Kheri district, SP workers forced closure of government offices. The protesters had locked the main gate of the Collectorate and the Vikas Bhavan (Office of Chief Development Officer) that was later opened with the intervention of police and district authorities.

Demonstrations that disrupted traffic at several important places were also carried out in Meerut, Allahabad, Varanasi, Kanpur and other cities.