Pune, Aug 1 (PTI) Workers of the Congress and the BJP staged opposing demonstrations here on Saturday during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the city to attend the Lokmanya Tilak Award ceremony, officials said.
While Congress and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) activists gathered at Utsav Chowk in Market Yard to hit out at the Centre over police action against student protesters during the Cockroach Janta Party’s agitation in Delhi, BJP workers assembled near Congress Bhavan, raising slogans in support of Shah.
The demonstrations followed the overnight preventive detention of several Youth Congress leaders.
Talking to reporters, the Congress’s Pune city unit president Prashant Jagtap said, “We all saw what happened in Delhi. False police cases were registered against students. As a responsible home minister, Amit Shah didn’t apologise; hence, we are protesting against him and his visit to the city.” Meanwhile, police took some office-bearers of the Youth Congress under preventive detention late on Friday night.
“A designated place has been given to the Congress party workers for the protest. We have detained a few people as a preventive measure,” a senior police official said.
The BJP staged protests near Congress Bhavan, where they raised slogans in support of Shah.
“The Congress has threatened to show black flags to the Home Minister. They are trying to spread anarchy. We were here to offer flowers to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Congress Bhavan,” one of the BJP workers said.
There is heavy police deployment in several areas of the city in view of the Home Minister’s visit. Shah is in the city to present the prestigious Lokmanya Tilak Award to National Security Advisor Ajit Doval for the latter’s significant contribution to the field of national security. PTI COR ARU
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.