Congress stir against Modi turns violent

Trouble started when some youths in the crowd tried to overturn a police vehicle some distance from the venue. About a dozen mounted police charged at them with lathis. Soon, the Congress workers were picking up stones and rocks from the roadside and hurling them at police.

In the lathi-charge that followed, senior Congress leaders like Leader of the Opposition Arjun Modhvadhia, GPCC chief Bharatsinh Solanki, and many party MLAs were chased for over a kilometre.

The Government seems to have expected trouble, and had deployed 2,000 policemen, supervised by five IPS officers summoned for duty from as far as Rajkot. Congress leaders alleged that police had prevented vehicles carrying workers to the venue from leaving the districts.

Trucks taking workers from the ST bus station in Gandhinagar too were stopped.

Leader of the Opposition Arjun Modhwadia later lodged a protest with the Government against the police action in sabotaging a political programme. He demanded action against those who hampered the programme.