JOIN USSamajwadi Party workers clash with police amid farmers’ peaceful protest in Uttar Pradesh
With farmers observing a day-long hunger strike on Monday amid their largely peaceful protests against the central farm laws, the Samajwadi Party workers held demonstrations backing their demands and clashed with police at various places in Uttar Pradesh.
Following clashes with police, several Samajwadi Party leaders and workers were taken in custody in various districts of Uttar Pradesh. In Lucknow, the SP workers clashed with police in the Kaisarbagh area on being stopped from proceeding to the district collectorate.
Several SP workers, including women, were also taken into custody. In Agra too, television footage showed police using mild force to disperse protesting Samajwadi Party workers.
SP MLC Rajpal Kashyap claimed from Sandila in Hardoi district that he has been arrested and many other party leaders have been put under house arrest for siding with farmers. "Samajwadi Party supports farmers’ demands. Its sympathy lies with farmers. The ‘kisan yatra’ was started by the SP on December 7.
The party workers are holding dharna at all the district headquarters in the state today. I have been arrested in Sandila and many party leaders are under house arrest," Kashyap told PTI.
In Gorakhpur too, police detained several SP leaders and workers including district president proceeding to participate in a sit-in at Nagar Nigam office campus. Police began detaining SP workers since morning and arrested party’s Gorakhpur district president Ram Nagina Sahini and former president Ziaul Islam when he was undertaking morning exercise in a school campus.
Some SP workers were arrested near the Townhall crossing and some were arrested from Zila Parishad road. "The police and government are snatching our constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully. They are registering fake cases against us and not letting us protest," Sahini said. Gorakhpur’s Senior Superintendent of Police Jogendra Kumar justified arrests on grounds of Covid-19 restrictions
. "Section 144 is already imposed in the district. It is not safe to gather at a place without social distancing during a pandemic. They should have first take taken permission for holding demonstrations from the district magistrate," SSP Kumar said.
Senior Samajwadi Party Peader and former UP minister Arvind Singh Gope told PTI from Barabanki that houses of all local SP leaders have been turned into police fortresses. "When we wanted to move out, we were not allowed," Gope said. “In a democracy, when people hit roads, dictators have to flee,” he added, exuding confidence that protesting farmers would bring his party back to power in 2022 UP assembly elections and “throw out the dictatorial regime".
In Kanpur, hundreds of Samajwadi Party workers sat on a dharna on Bada Chauraha in support of farmers’ agitation.
"We were heading to the district collectorate to submit a memorandum addressed to the President on farmers’ issue when we were stopped by a large police posse at Bada Chauraha," said party’s city president, Dr Imran.
On being stopped, party leaders, including MLAs Amitabh Bajpayee and Irfan Solanki, decided to sit on dharna at Bada Chauraha, he added. Kanpur's City Magistrate Himanshu Gupta said the protestors were stopped at Bada Chauraha where they sat on dharna.
Samajwadi Party workers from Ballia claimed their party leaders along with those of the Congress and other opposition parties were kept under house arrest. In Muzaffarnagar too, several SP and RLD leaders were taken into custody ahead of their proposed protest in support of farmers.
Reports of SP workers protests came in from Bahraich and Siddhartha Nagar also. Samajwadi Partry leader Amit Yadav told PTI from Mahoba that at least 30 party workers were taken into custody by the police. Hamirpur’s Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said 48 Samajwadi Party workers were detained in the district.