At least 25 people were arrested in Gulbarga on Saturday as they tried to stage a “black flag” demonstration against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for not “honouring” an assurance to provide special economic powers to the ‘Hyderabad-Karnataka’ region.
Members of ‘Hyderabad-Karnataka Horata Samiti’ alleged that when Gandhi was here for electioneering last year, he had promised to take up the issue of amendment of Article 371 of the Constitution with the Centre which would pave way for special economic powers to the “backward” region.
However, nothing had happened so far, they said.
Those taken into custody also included members of two other Kannada protagonist organisations, who were awaiting Gandhi’s arrival near Sharana Basaveshwara Residential School, the venue for his interaction with students, to present a memorandum to him on problems of Hyderabad-Karnataka region, police said.
Gandhi interacted with 650 students and later left for Bangalore, they said.
The region comprises Bidar,Gulbarga and Raichur districts.
