Cong leaders, workers detained trying to march to Gujarat assembly

Police resort to mild lathicharge, Opposition leader Shankarsinh Vaghela detained alongwith 14 MLAs

Over 200 Congressmen including prominent state leaders were today detained for allegedly violating a notification which denied them from taking out a rally towards the Gujarat Assembly here.

The Congress had organised youth gathering in the city here after which they started marching toward the Assembly. Police tried to stop them saying that they were just given permission for a public meeting and not for a rally.

Amid skirmish, police resorted to mild lathicharge, which led to commotion at the venue after which Congress leaders including state unit chief Arjun Modhwadia, leader of opposition Shankarsinh Vaghela and former CLP chief Siddarth Patel were detained alongwith 14 MLAs.

"More than 200 Congress workers were detained under Section 68 of the Gujarat Police Act. The Congress party had the permission for public meeting not to take out a rally," Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police Sharad Singhal said.

After the public meeting here, they started marching towards state assembly, police officer said. "Therefore, for violating the notification, Congress workers including 14 MLAs were detained," Singhal said. Yesterday, all the Congress MLAs were suspended for two days from state assembly following unruly scenes, after which they decided to boycott rest of the session.

Section 68 of Gujarat Police Act states that all persons shall be bound to conform to reasonable directions of a police officer given in fulfilment of any of his duties under the Act.

The public gathering, organised by Youth Congress and National Students Union of India (NSUI), party's youth wing, was to highlight the extensive corruption, commercialisation of education and large-scale unemployment among youth in the last two decades, during the time in which BJP was in power.