Some damage,much disruption

Chavan said cases would be examined to identify which party had damaged public property. “If political activists are directly identified then fine would be recovered from them or else from the respective party,” he said.

One of the earliest protests was in Mulund,where BJP leaders including Kirit Somaiya,Sardar Tara Singh and corporator Manoj Kotak were arrested with others when they tried to disrupt train and BEST bus services. “We also arrested RPI MLC Jogendra Kawade and a group trying to stage a rasta roko on LBS Road. We also arrested Prabhakar Shinde (Shiv Sena) and around 20 youths from Navghar. Around 6-7 buses were vandalised in zone 7,” said DCP (Zone 7) R Vhatkar.

Already,overnight,over 432 people had been detained as preventive action. Over 1,000 police personnel,three SRPF units and a Rapid Action Force had been pressed into action.

The morning also saw the arrest of MNS MLA Bala Nandgaonkar after he and 500 others staged a protest outside Bharatmata in Dadar. Sena leader Dagdu Sakpal was arrested from Lalbaug. A group of BJP workers were detained for trying to stop traffic near the sea link.

At Bandra,the usually buzzing shopping hubs came to a standstill. Malls,small stores,restaurants,and vegetable and fruit shops were all shut.

Yet Chavan,Home Minister R R Patil and Deputy chief minister Chagan Bhujbal refuted claims that the bandh was successful. “Some shops were shut but generally everything was functional. Some people were scared due to the hype and did not come out of their homes,” Chavan said.

He along with Patil travelled in local trains to gauge the impact of the bandh. Chavan said he was happy to see normal functioning of the trains. “Except for two train services which were cancelled the rest were on schedule,” Chavan said.

BJP Maharashtra chief Sudhir Mungantiwar said the bandh was totally successful. “Except for some stray incidents across Maharashtra,the bandh was 100 per cent successful despite the Chief Minister’s attempts to strike it down,” he said. He criticised a senior policeman for threatening protesters at Kolhapur with a revolver.

Asked if the party would pay up for damage to property,Mungantiwar said that first the damages for last year’s communal riots in Sangli and Miraj need to be recovered from the NCP as a Congress leader (MLC and spokesperson Hussain Dalwai) had held the NCP responsible.