Congress stages protests across UP against booking of its leaders in Sangipur incident

The Congress staged demonstrations across Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday demanding the revocation of FIRs registered against its leaders in connection with the assault of BJP MP Sangam Lal Gupta and its workers during a function in Sangipur block of Pratapgarh district.

Congress leader and former MP Pramod Tiwari has been accused of leading a mob of party workers and assaulting BJP MP Gupta and its workers last week.

Congress workers submitted memoranda to the authorities in all 75 districts of the state and demanded a judicial inquiry into the Sangipur incident, the party's media department convenor Ashok Singh said.

The Congress condemned the arbitrary and autocratic manner in which its leaders have been framed in fake cases and alleged that the Sangipur incident was a conspiracy hatched by the BJP MP to humiliate its leaders and create an atmosphere of anarchy.

In Lucknow, Congress workers gathered at Makbara Road and raised slogans against the BJP government in the state, a party release issued here said, adding that they also handed a memorandum, addressed to Governor Anandiben Patel, to her ADCP Rajesh Srivastava.

The party workers had a scuffle for about half an hour with the police personnel on duty to hand over the memorandum, it added.

Speaking on the occasion, the Congress leaders said the government has been unnerved over the consistent revelation of its failures by their party.

They said the Sangipur incident is an example of how the police and the civil administration are being used to terrorise opposition leaders and implicate them in false cases.

Targeting the Pratapgarh district administration, Ashok Singh said that it has adopted a discriminatory attitude against the Congress and alleged that it had not acted against the BJP MP who, along with his supporters, had caused traffic jam on the Lucknow-Varanasi highway for hours on the day of the incident and did not register any case in the matter.

In its memorandum, the Congress has requested the governor to put a check on the discriminatory attitude of the official machinery and the government's efforts to crush the voice of the opposition, Singh said, adding that five FIRs have been filed in connection with the Pratapgarh incident.

Similar protests were held in other districts of the state, the party said.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu had on Monday given the call for a statewide protest against the Sangipur incident.

BJP’s Pratapgarh MP Sangam Lal Gupta had on Saturday accused Tiwari of leading a mob of his party workers to beat him up and his party's activists during a government function in Sangipur block of Pratapgarh district, prompting the police to register cases against several persons, including senior Congress leader Aradhana Misra.

The BJP MP had alleged that the incident happened when he and his party workers reached the ''mela'' venue in Sangipur, where ex-Congress MP Tiwari was sitting on the dais.

''Seeing me at the venue, Tiwari and his supporters first began hooting at me and our workers. Later they grew violent and attacked us,'' he had said.

''They beat me up too and tore my kurta,'' he had said.