Guj: Cong's Bharat bandh gets mixed response, 300 detained

The Congress' Bharat bandh Monday to protest against skyrocketing fuel prices evoked a mixed response in Gujarat with the party calling the shutdown successful while the police claimed it had no major impact.

Police said that over 300 Congress functionaries were detained across the state, including state party chief Amit Chavda and Gujarat party in-charge Rajiv Satav from Lal Darwaja area here.

Schools were shut in areas including Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Mehsana and there were reports of Congress workers forcing petrol pumps to down shutters in some parts of the state.

In Rajkot, government schools remained open while private schools declared a holiday.

Roads in some areas, including Chhotaudepur and Surat, were blocked with burning tyres by protesting Congress workers while bus services were affected in many areas like Rajkot, Amreli and Ahmedabad.

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi called the bandh successful but agreed that party workers tried to shut down some establishments during the day.

"Gujarat has observed a complete bandh as people voluntarily joined it. It is true that our workers did try to shut some establishments. But we only requested the people to close their operations. We did not indulge in violence. Many of our workers and leaders were detained today," Doshi said.

According to the Gujarat police control room, the bandh call left no major impact on daily life and no untoward incident had been reported till afternoon.