Ahmedabad, July 11: Violent scenes were witnessed outside the state Assembly building on Friday, when Opposition Congress MLAs — all dressed in black to protest against the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy — clashed with a group of BJP workers over the issue. The timely intervention of the police prevented the situation from taking an ugly turn.
The incident occurred when a group of BJP youth workers from Ahmedabad attempted to counter the slogan-shouting Congress MLAs who were returning after staging a protest programme near Mahatma Gandhi’s statue outside the Assembly building.
The Congress legislators, led by Leader of the Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil, had gone to the statue during the Assembly recess to chant a Ram dhun to protest against the Narendra Modi government’s alleged failure to check the hooch tragedy and “the political shelter being provided by the ruling BJP to bootleggers in the state”.
As the Opposition party MLAs were returning to the Assembly, a group of BJP youth workers confronted them with counter slogans. The BJP workers, who came in their private vehicles from Ahmedabad, were armed with sticks.
This apparently provoked a section of Congress MLAs to launch a counter offensive, where both rival groups resorted to fisticuffs. A posse of policemen posted there swung into action and separated the two groups. No one was reported hurt in the incident.
Later, Gohil told reporters that about 150 BJP youth workers had sneaked into the Assembly complex holding visitors’ passes issued by three BJP legislators from Ahmedabad — Pradipsinhji Jadeja, Gitaben Patel and Vallabh Kakadia.
–Agencies