Samajwadi Party workers, on Thursday, went all out to ensure the success of the nationwide protest against FDI in retail and hike in diesel price by holding demonstrations and stopping trains in various districts.
Protesters stopped trains in Mathura, Agra, Varanasi, Allahabad and Lucknow as part of their stir while BJP workers and traders blocked the Agra-Gwalior highway by burning tyres. Samajwadi activists raised slogans against FDI in retail and put a lock on the Walmart wholesale store at Sultanpur road. SP workers also locked up the divisional railway office and the income-tax office that were open on Thursday.
A group of workers also held a protest outside divisional railway manager’s office in Hazratganj.
Major markets remained closed at a number of places in UP, including the state capital. Several prominent city schools remained closed as a precautionary measure. Those that remained open recorded a scanty attendance.
The offices and houses of Congress leaders were also targeted by the protesters. SP workers, along with traders, gheraoed the residence of Congress MLA Vivek Singh in Banda district and then the residence of Union minister R.P.N. Singh in Kushinagar.
In Lucknow, the BJP’s former national president Rajnath Singh led the protest, whereas national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was leading the protest in Kanpur.
In Kanpur, the police had to resort to lathicharge on SP workers to control the mob. Reports of some SP activists indulging in eve-teasing were also received.
Reports of similar protests also poured in from other districts, including Allahabad, where activists of the SP youth wing stopped the Bareilly-bound Triveni Express.