Ujjain: Amid hide and seek and huge chaos the irate BJP and BJYM workers succeeded in burning the effigies of Chief Minister Kamal Nath, here on Monday afternoon, over deteriorating law and order situation and continuous murders of party leaders.
In the leadership of BJP district head Vivek Joshi (urban), Shyam Bansal (rural) and BJYM state head Abhilash Pandey hundreds of the BJP leaders and workers gathered at the Tower Square and burnt over 5 effigies of CM Kamal Nath amid presence of cops protesting against worsening law and order situation in the state and murders of BJP leaders within a week. District media head Sachin Saxena and co-media in-charge Dinesh Jatwa informed that 13 effigies were made at block levels for simultaneous burning.
Joshi condemned insensitivity of the government over murder of BJP leader Prahlad Bandhwar and Manoj Thackrey. He told that a relative of BJP leader was also gunned down in Guna. As soon as the Congress-led government came to the power in the state a scenario of anarchy has been created in the state, he added.
BJYM chief Pandey also condemned the Congress-led government and warned the CM to exhibit more aggressive state wide protest in the state if the situation of law and order do not get back on track in the state. Senior BJP leader Babulal Jain, MLAs Paras Jain and Bahadur Singh Chouhan, Sonu Gehlot, Tejbahadur Singh Chouhan, Iqbal Singh Gandhi, KP Jhala, Sanwar Patel, Virendra Kawadiya, Om Jain, Satish Malviya, Ashok Katiyar, and Amey Apte were present. The programme was conducted by district general secretary Suresh Giri.
Case registered against ‘unknown’ persons
Meanwhile, the Madhav Nagar police late night registered offences punishable under Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 147 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of IPC against unknown persons. TI Arun Soni told Free Press that identification of demonstrators and rioters will be made soon and accordingly they will be arrested.
Police on alert
In view of BJP’s effigy burning programme the police administration remained on alert to cope with any untoward incident. The department deployed anti riot vehicle ‘Vajra’ and heavy police force at the venue of the programme. The BJP leaders amid strict security light clashed with cops succeeded in burning five effigies of CM Kamal Nath. Scenes of hide and seek were seen there for some time as the policemen ran behind the workers to snatch away the effigies. Some workers snatched fire extinguishers from the policemen. Heated arguments and pushing and elbowing prevailed for a long time. Police had to spray water through fire brigade and police lorries to disperse the BJP workers.
Cong condemns BJP’s protest, calls it a gimmick
Hitting back against BJP’s allegations Congress spokesperson Vivek Gupta told that murders are the outcome of BJP’s 15-year-long rule and connivance with criminals. He alleged that 46,000 rape and over 10,000 murder cases were registered during the rule of the BJP while 15,000 farmers committed suicide. He attributed recent murders of BJP leaders to their infighting and rivalries. District Congress head Mahesh Soni told that staging protest and levelling allegations on the state government is mere a gimmick of the BJP leaders.
