By Alok Mohit
Patna, August 5: Police detained hundreds of Congress leaders and workers to prevent them from staging a protest opposite Raj Bhawan here as part of the party’s nationwide stir against the Centre over price rise, GST hike on food items and unemployment.
Led by Congress state president Madan Mohan Jha, leaders and activists, carrying banners and posters and raising anti-government slogans, were marching towards Raj Bhawan from party headquarters Sadaqat Ashram when they were stopped by a large posse of policemen.
“We were protesting democratically, peacefully and were going to Raj Bhawan to lodge our protest to lodge our protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union Governemnt. There is rising unemployment and harassment due to increased GST (Goods and Services Tax). Police are under pressure and are stopping us,” Jha told reporters before being detained.
Jha also strongly condemned the detention of party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
State Congress media cell chief, Rajesh Rathod, said imposing GST on essential commodities and food items was not a rational act. The price of petrol, diesel and LPG was also going north and the Congress party had taken to the streets as part of the nationwide ‘Jail Bharo campaign’ against the Centre on issues of inflation, unemployment and GST on food items.
Working president Shyam Sunder Singh Dheeraj, MLA Shakeel Ahmed Khan, Rajesh Kumar, Premchandra Mishra, Izharul Hussain, Afaq Alam, Pratima Kumari Das, Former Minister Awadhesh Kumar Singh, Chairman of media cell Rajesh Rathod, Dr. Jyoti, Veena Shahi took part in the Raj Bhavan march.
Several other party leaders including Brajesh Prasad Munan, former MLA Narendra Kumar, Brajesh Pandey, Lal Babu Lal, Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh, Gajanand Shahi, Anand Madhav, Kumar Ashish, Gyan Ranjan, Rajesh Kumar Sinha, Sanjeev Kumar Karmaveer, Arvind Lal Rajak, Nagendra Kumar, Shashikant Tiwari, Shashi Ranjan, Asfar Ahmed, Ashutosh Sharma, Anurag Chandan, Saurabh Sinha, Shashi Kumar Singh, Sudha Mishra, Kapil Dev Prasad Yadav, Ramayan Prasad Yadav, Uday Shankar Patel, Akhileshwar Singh, Amarendra Singh, Mrinal Anamay, Arvind Chaudhary, Siddharth Kshatriya, Urmila Singh Neelu, Jai Prakash Chaudhary, Moni Devi Paswan, Amit Kumar, Parvez Ahmed, Vimlesh Tiwari, Durga Prasad, Nidhi Pandey, Satyendra Kumar Singh, Ravi Golden, Anokha Devi, Mrigendra Kumar, Sunil Kumar Singh, Pradumna Yadav, Gurudayal Singh, Rekha Devi, Rajendra Chaudhary and Niranjan Kumar participated in the protest march.
Photos: Aftab Alam Siddiqui
