BHOPAL: The Congress MLAs who had planned to reach the Vidhan Sabha on bicycles on Monday left their bikes midway and reached the Assembly in their cars. The Budget session started on Monday and, to protest against the hike in the prices of petroleum products, the MLAs had planned to ride their bicycles to reach the Assembly.
The party sources said the Congress MLAs — including Jitu Patwari, PC Sharma, Arif Masood, Sanjay Yadav, Sunil Sharaf, Shashank Bhargava and Kunal Choudhary — gathered at Shivaji Nagar and started out on their bicycles. Other MLAs and Congress supporters also marched towards the Assembly from Vyapam Square. But, when they reached the foot of the hill at Vyapam Square, they were not able to ride up the hill on their bicycles. After reaching Shourya Smarak, all of them got off their bicycles and started walking.
Patwari was the first to reach the barricades raised at the PEB office. The police stopped all the Congress supporters and permitted only the MLAs to cross the barricades. PC Sharma was at the tail-end of the procession and the efforts to cycle all the way appeared to have exhausted him. The other MLAs also seemed tired, but, somehow, managed to reach the hill top. Sharma and Patwari, however, left their cycles midway and took a car to reach the Assembly premises, while Kunal, Sharaf, Yadav, Bhargava and Masood reached on their bikes.
The MLAs took the wrong track to reach the Assembly on bicycles. They should have taken ridden the cycles from Mantralaya to reach the Assembly. For them to climb the hill is a difficult task because of their age and other health factors.
