Tension prevailed outside the Uttar Pradesh Congress headquarters in Lucknow on Wednesday as Congress workers repeatedly clashed with police after the party office was turned into a virtual fortress with a three-layer security barricade and around 150 police personnel deployed from the main gate to the adjoining road.
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Congress workers, including women, gathered at the office carrying sticks, saying they were prepared to counter a protest march announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The first confrontation erupted around 12.30 pm when Congress workers objected to barricades being placed close to the office gate and pushed them back. The Congress had announced a march to the chief minister’s official residence in response to the BJP’s call to protest outside the Congress office.
As UP Congress president Ajay Rai and his supporters attempted to march towards 5, Kalidas Marg, they were stopped by the police. Protesters broke through the first barricade and advanced nearly 100 metres before being halted at a second barricade, triggering a heated confrontation. Police pushed back the workers, while some protesters climbed onto the barricades. Rai sat on the road in protest, and for over 30 minutes he and his supporters tried to push past the police before they were detained and taken to Eco Garden.
Meanwhile, BJP workers had assembled at the VVIP Guest House, less than a kilometre from the Congress headquarters, but heavy police deployment prevented the rival groups from coming face to face.
“Despite being in power for over a decade, the BJP is behaving like an opposition party and considers Congress to be the ruling party. We want to keep the BJP on the right track; that is why we are holding sticks today,” Rai said.
Referring to Tuesday’s protest by Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra near the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi, Rai said, “The legacy of our freedom struggle is rooted in public dialogue, Satyagraha and democratic resistance. The manner in which protesting youth and our leaders were treated in New Delhi raises serious questions regarding police accountability, transparency and the spirit of the rule of law.”
