Students on horseback welcome UP minister

People, who were in the crowded market on Sunday purchasing goods and other things were shocked, when they saw several horse riders running past them in speed from both sides of the road virtually trapping them.

They wondered if there was some kind of horse racing competition being held there. Many of them had to run for safety to avoid being trampled by the horses.

It later turned out that an Uttar Pradesh minister was on his way to inaugurate the students’ union office at a local college and the jubilant and ecstatic Samajwadi Party workers wanted to give the minister historic welcome.

The place was Mughalsarai market in Chandauli district, about 300 kilometers from here and the minister was Shakeel Ahmed.

Ahmed had been invited by the newly elected office bearers of a local postgraduate college to inaugurate their new office.

The roads leading to the college had been decorated and welcome arches had been erected on the way. But the SP leaders, it appear, were not satisfied.

Some of the supporters, when they got the information that the minister was about to arrive at the venue, began a kind of horse racing in the crowded market triggering a sort panic. Locals claimed that the horse riders were in an inebriated state.

Eyewitnesses said there was a near stampede in the market though no one was injured.
Earlier also, SP leaders and supporters of the state ministers had, in their attempt to please their bosses, blocked highways and busy roads with their processions and display of arms.

Only a few months back, shots were fired in the air and arms were displayed in public when an SP leader reached Sultanpur after being declared the party nominee from there in the recently held Lok Sabha polls.