RANCHI: Keeping up with their counterparts from across the country, the leaders, lawmakers and workers of Jharkhand Congress on Friday tried to gherao the Raj Bhawan in protest against steep price rise of essential commodities.
Despite the rumblings inside the party and the arrest of its three MLAs in West Bengal over cash haul, the party’s state unit exercised its show of strength on the streets of Ranchi. The party state president, the MLAs, the ministers in the state cabinet, the former Union minister along with 2,000 ‘karyakartas’ marched from the party’s state headquarters located at Shraddhanand Road to Raj Bhawan at around 11 am.
Anticipating a law-and-order situation, the Ranchi administration had deputed several DSP and magistrate-ranked officials to lead a contingent of police and security personnel outside Raj Bhawan. The protesters sat on a dharna outside the gates when they were stopped from entering the complex. They were hoarded into buses and taken to the football stadium in Morhabadi soon after they reached Raj Bhawan. They were released from preventive detention around 3:30 pm.
“The Centre has been making lives miserable for the people. There is steep inflation and growing unemployment in the country. Politicians, who are opposing these issues persistently, are being framed by the agencies. Our country’s democracy is at risk,” state party president Rajest Thakur said.