Several BJP workers, including State president Surya Pratap Shahi, were injured here on Friday when the police used force to foil an attempt by them to stage a protest against the “tie-up” among the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party at Thursday's meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G spectrum scam.
Soon after hundreds of BJP workers, led by Mr. Shahi, staged a dharna on the busy Vidhan Sabha Marg to protest the police action and courted arrest. They burnt the effigies of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh.
The BJP headquarters on the Vidhan Sabha Marg was heavily barricaded by the police. When the party workers, led by Mr. Shahi and other senior leaders, came out, they were halted. Violence broke out when members of the women's wing scuffled with the police.
As the workers did not back down, the police resorted to a lathi-charge and used water cannon. Mr. Shahi and some senior leaders sustained minor injuries.
BJP leaders alleged that the police entered the party office and threw stones to scare the workers away, a charge the police denied. The arrested were later released.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Shahi accused the Congress of coopting the BSP and the SP at the PAC meeting. The three parties were misleading the people, he said: they stood together in Parliament, but were opposed to one another in public.
He said the BJP would stage dharna in all district headquarters on Saturday, and no permission was needed.
