As expected, leaders and members of the Bharatiya Jantaya Party (BJP), including Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar, MP Pralhad Joshi, MLA Arvind Bellad, and others courted arrest on Tuesday while participating in a motorcycle rally as part of Mangaluru Chalo.
As the police had not issued any permission, it was expected that they would not allow the motorcycle rally in the city. However, considering the law and order situation, the police allowed the motorcycle rally to begin from the Nehru Stadium and cover a distance within the city before stopping the participants on the outskirts of the city and detained the participants.
Mr. Shettar, Mr. Joshi and others led the motorcycle rally by standing atop a transport vehicle with flex boards mounted on it as motorcyclists with BJP flag tied to their bikes raised slogans against the State government apart from chanting Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai.
During the course of the rally, the police diverted vehicular movement to facilitate free passage for the rally. As the rally proceeded under police escort, another troop of police was waiting near Anchatageri just before the city limits ended. The organisers of the rally too had been informed that they would not be allowed to proceed further. But the police allowed Mr. Shettar and Mr. Joshi address the participants again before detaining them.
Mr. Joshi announced that they were not against the police as they were acting according to the directions of the State government. However, he referred to one senior official serving in Dharwad and alleged that he was unnecessarily harassing BJP leaders.
Mr. Joshi, in fact, made an appeal to the police to leave the participants alone so that they would return to their homes on their motorcycles. However, the police detained them and seized their motorcycles.
Apart from those who had come on motorcycles, some woman members of the BJP too had come in an open vehicle and they too were detained. Around 150 persons who were detained were taken in buses to the CAR Grounds on Airport Road and they were released in the evening. However, the vehicles seized were not immediately released.
