Bandh opposing Mahayagnya evokes partial response

Kolhapur, Nov 2 (UNI) The Bandh called by Bharatiya Lok Andolan to oppose the ''Vishwashanti Mahayagnya'', scheduled to begin here tomorrow, evoked a partial response.

While shops, hotels and other business activities were closed in the busy Mahadwa road and Bhausinghji road, Life in other parts of the city was normal as usual. The buses and autorickshaws also remained operational.

Activists of Political parties like CPI, CPI(M), PWP, NCP and other social organisations, marched in the city's roads shouting slogans against the Yagnya and also the government machinery, which granted permission to it. The morcha, led by veteran PWP leader Professor N D Patil, CPI leader Govind Pansare and NCP MP Sadashivrao Mandlik, among others was stopped by police at city's Papachitikati point, where all the activists sat on a ''dharna'' and the prominent leaders started addressing the gathering.

The ''Maa Vardayini Trust'' people, who are organising the Yagnya, took out a ''Shobhayatra'' from Goddess Mahalakshmi temple to the Yagnya site at Gandhi Maidan as a part of the rituals.

Many BJP and Hindutva organisations' activists took part in the morcha including BJP MLC Chandrakantdada Patil, Party district chief Mahesh Jadhav, Shiv Sena city chief Rajesh Kshirsagar and women activists.

Police bandobust near Gandhi Maidan has been beefed up and some routes reaching the Maidan have been closed.

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