Congressmen Clash With Police in Bhopal, Senior Leaders Arrested

Bhopal: Police used force to disperse Congress leaders and workers who tried to gherao the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

Some senior leaders have been arrested by police. Agitators also pelted stones at police, leading to some injuries.

Earlier, senior leaders including Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, state head Arun Yadav and others addressed the party workers and accused BJP government in the state of involvement in ISI espionage racket, rampant corruption, Vyapam scam, illegal mining and ignoring the plight of farmers.

This is the first time after nearly three years that so many senior party leaders have come together on common platform.

Singh accusing Chief Minister Chouhan and his kin of gross corruption and asked those people who have evidence against BJP to meet him.

Nath vowed to expose the BJP government as he and his fellow Congressmen did in 1990. “Once we come to power, the fake cases lodged against Congressmen would be revoked and farmers’ loans would be waived off,” he said.

The gathering saw some unruly scenes when Scindia supporters raising slogans in his support came close to the stage amid pleas of discipline by senior leaders. Nath’s supporters too responded with heavy sloganeering.

Senior leaders were seen placating their supporters with folded hands.

Soon after the leaders started moving towards the assembly and crossed the first security cordon. Among others, Singh climbed on the barricade but was pushed back by police.

Not able to contain the agitators, police lathicharged them, prompting them to retaliate with stone pelting.

The protest cased heavy traffic jams in the city for many hours. Police arrested all the senior leaders along with many party workers and took them away in buses.

BJP state head Nandkumar Singh Chauhan dubbed the protest a flop show. “Congress claimed of gathering one lakh protesters whereas the demonstration saw few thousand people,” he said.