By IANS,
Lucknow : Police here Wednesday resorted to baton charge and detained over 100 Congress party workers who were protesting against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s alleged derogatory remarks against Mahatma Gandhi.
The police action came when about 400 Congress workers were marching to the state assembly from the party’s headquarters.
“We used the force to prevent them from becoming unruly. On several occasions, they have tried to disrupt the traffic movement,” N.K. Srivastava, deputy inspector general of police in Lucknow, told reporters.
No one was seriously injured in the incident, he added.
Congress state unit spokesman Subodh Srivastava told IANS: “Nearly 20 of our party workers were injured.”
Addressing a meeting of parliament members and legislators of her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) here Saturday, Mayawati reportedly called the Father of the Nation a “natakbaaz” (fake).
She also distributed pamphlets condemning both Mahatma Gandhi and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi for being allegedly insincere about the improvement in the Dalits’ socio-economic status.