By IANS,
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party activists Thursday burnt effigies of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati in various parts of the state to protest the “dictatorial rule” of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government.
Undaunted by warnings issued by the state machinery and the intensified security, Samajwadi Party workers went about burning Mayawati’s effigies and raising anti-government slogans.
Police crackdown was reported from many areas of the state, including Lucknow, Allahabad, Agra and Kanpur, and the activists were chased by cane-wielding policemen. Hundreds of workers were arrested.
State Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav was put under “house arrest” at his residence here, while his father and party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was in Delhi to attend the budget session of parliament.
“I was not allowed to step out of my house that was literally sealed with complete barricading on both sides of the gate,” Akhilesh told reporters Thursday afternoon after he was allowed to go to his party headquarters, some 250 metres from his home.
The party office was heavily barricaded from both sides, blocking movement of vehicles and pedestrians since Wednesday evening.
“The administration seems to be least bothered about the inconvenience they were causing to common commuters and citizens residing in the neighbourhood,” Akhilesh said.
He, however, looked elated with the success of his party’s show of strength.
“What we have also succeeded in exposing was Mayawati’s highly undemocratic and dictatorial rule,” he said. “Afterall, the opposition is allowed to stage protests in any democratic system.”
As the young environmental engineer turned politician and Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj sat in the party office, he was flooded with phone calls from across the state’s 73 districts, informing him about the protests held by Samajwadi activists.
Thursday’s protest was a sequel to the three-day anti-government protests earlier this month (March 7-9), which the Mayawati administration crushed with brute force.
Police personnel not only went about indiscriminately beating up agitators, but in certain places like Lucknow, senior officers even kicked and trampled on Samajwadi workers.