Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Indiscipline and disobedience among the Congress leaders was widely exposed during the demonstration staged by the party against Central and State governments at Jawahar Chowk on Monday. Hundreds of Congress leaders and workers from all across the state had descended on the city to lay siege to Raj Bhawan.
On board three trucks the Congress leaders headed to the protest site. PCC president Kamal Nath, LoP in Assembly Dr Govind Singh and other MLAs boarded a truck, while other two trucks had other legislators and party leaders.
The dais setup at the square was too small even to accommodate all the top Congress leaders. Many of the key leaders had to step down after addressing the gathering, because of space crunch. Chaos in and around the dais was pretty evident as the party leaders who did not get a chance to be on stage had gathered around it to make an attempt to be on the dais. MLA Arif Masood, party state vice president Rajiv Singh and other top leaders were seen asking them to keep distance from the dais, but to no avail.
Carrying flags in their hands, the supporters of Anil Bagdi who had come from Indore, had surrounded the entire stage. Rajiv Singh had to ask them to step back as the other people standing far away were unable to see the dais.
Similarly, the members of Youth Congress and NSUI stormed the protest venue carrying flags. Notwithstanding that the party leaders were addressing the gathering, the YC and NSUI activists continued raising slogans in support of their leaders. The Congress leaders had to ask them to maintain silence during the speech, however, no one paid any heed and continued with the sloganeering.
The Congressmen were seen raising slogans for AICC former president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and party leader Priyanka Gandhi, however, only a handful of them raised slogans for the sitting AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge.
The Congress leaders in their address attacked the BJP-ruled state government for suppressing the voice of democracy. Leader of opposition Dr Govind Singh asked the Congressmen to get united to uproot the BJP government from the state.
Ten lose mobile phones during protest
As many as ten complaints pertaining to mobile thefts during the Congress' protests were reported, TT Nagar police said. Apart from mobile thefts, no cases of pick-pocketing or other nefarious crimes were registered at the police station, said police station in-charge, Chain Singh Raghuwanshi. No arrest has been made in connection with the thefts so far. The protests by the Congress party workers lasted for two hours. A worker of the party hailing from Satna fell unconscious during the protest. He was referred to a private hospital for treatment.
