BJP youth workers stage protest against SP rule in Lucknow

Lucknow, June 30: The

workers staged violent protests against the ruling

(SP) on Monday due to lack of law and order and power crisis in the the

capital, Lucknow.

TV reports showed visuals where the UP police personnel had to lathicharge the protesting BJP youth workers outside Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The routes leading towards the UP Vidhan Sabha were cordoned off to avert the protests from further escalation.

Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJPYM) workers gathered outside the Vidhan Sabha where the budget session is going on. They tried to break barricades, following which police used water canons and cane charged them to disperse them.

Incensed members of the BJPYM raised slogans against the state Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav after which the police intensified the cane charge and also used tear-gas shells to disperse them.

BJP leaders accused police personnel of targetting them without any provocation and termed the police action as "unlawful and unwarranted".

The party also said at least 50 of its workers were injured.

However, BJP leaders said such protests would continue over the next two weeks.

"We are a responsible political party and have all rights to raise problems faced by the people. We are not going to be cowed down by such police action at the behest of the ruling Samajwadi Party," state spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak told a news agency.

The BJP and Samajwadi Party fought a pitched battle at the same place last week, in which more than a dozen people were injured.

Senior BJP leaders led by the state unit chief Laxmikant Bajpayi staged a sit-in after which two officials were transferred and a probe was ordered.

High on the recent Lok Sabha victory, insiders say the BJP wants to maintain a momentum against the Akhilesh Yadav government.

Sources said the national leadership has approved its "proactive" stance on issues like law and order and power crisis and has asked the state unit to step up such protests.

The Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav- led government is on the backfire due to rising crime against women and power crisis.

The SP government has failed to take hold of the grim situation in the state, thus calling criticism from all the opposition parties.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 71 out of the 80 seats in the state, while the Samajwadi Party managed just five, the Congress won two and the Bahujan Samaj Party drew a blank.

OneIndia News

(With agency inputs)