Lucknow, March 7 : The police in Uttar Pradesh swing into action today to foil the three-day-long 'chakka jam' agitation by the Samajwadi Party by rounding up more than 2,500 party activists, putting Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son under house arrest and resorting to lathicharge at a number of places.
SP activists came out on the streets in Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Bareilly, Meerut, Jaunpur, Firozabad, Etawah, Sant Kabir Nagar, Ghaziabad, Badayun and Varanasi.
At several places, police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the activists shouting slogans against Mayawati, the state chief minister.
Mulayam Singh has given call for "BSP Hatao, UP Bachao'(Remove BSP, Save UP). This is being seen as a preparation for the oncoming UP assembly elections.
In Lucknow, Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh were allegedly put under "house arrest". Alleging that authorities had barricaded their residence and deployed security personnel around it to restrict their movement, Mulayam said it was a breach of privilege of the two MPs.
The SP supremo said he had faxed a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker after he was "prevented from attending Parliament" this morning. Authorities, however, denied that that the SP leaders were put under "house arrest".
"The two leaders are not under house arrest. In fact, Mulayam Singh Yadav was scheduled to leave for New Delhi by a morning flight, which has been delayed," District Magistrate Anil Kumar Sagar said.
He said that a "proper route" was provided to the SP supremo to travel to the airport. Before leaving for Delhi, Mulayam claimed that the Mayawati government had ordered a crackdown on SP workers.
"Even I and Akhilesh were put under house arrest this morning," he alleged. Akhilesh is the President of the party's Uttar Pradesh unit. "It was breach of parliamentary privilege by the administration and the police by not allowing us to come out of out Vikramaditya Marg residence," he said.
The SP supremo said that the party had launched a peaceful protest against "corruption and atrocities" of the state government. Apprehending trouble, authorities have made tight security arrangements across Uttar Pradesh.
The issue generated much heat in the Lok Sabha with SP members disrupting proceedings leading to two adjournments. The moment Speaker Meira Kumar took up the Question
Hour, SP members rushed to the Well claiming that their party chief has been kept under house arrest and raised slogans demanding dismissal of the Mayawati government.
"Uttar Pradesh sarkar barkhast karo, tanashahi wali sarkar nahi chalegi (dismiss UP government, we will not tolerate a government that behaves in a dictatorial manner)."
In a bid to pacify SP members, the Speaker allowed SP member Reoti Raman Singh to raise the matter. Singh said Yadav and a number of other SP MPs besides scores of party workers were kept under detention by the UP government.
Leader of the House and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he had requested the Home Minister to ascertain the facts and inform the Lok Sabha accordingly. However, SP members were not pacified by the assurances and stormed the Well once again.
BSP leader Dara Singh Chauhan and a few of his colleagues tried to counter the SP members In the letter requesting the Speaker to accept his "notice" for breach of privilege, Mulayam said,"I had a reservation on Kingfisher flight for Delhi to come to Lok Sabha, but heavy police force was deployed and barricades done erected by the DIG and DM at my residence."
"They were preventing me from attending Lok Sabha. Mayawati government is afraid of SP and the way it is preventing the peaceful protest shows that its days are
numbered and people will outs it in the polls," Yadav said.
Meanwhile, police used batons to disperse SP workers,led by Leader of the Opposition in state assembly Shivpal Yadav, when they attempted to move towards district
collectorate. PTI
