In a show of strength barely a year before the Assembly election, State BJP held a massive rally in Dehradun on Monday.
The places near the Assembly turned saffron with the party flags fluttering all around. Slogans sounding ‘death knell’ for the Harish Rawat Government rent the air.
All the prominent State party leaders, including three former Chief Ministers, all MPs: Major General (reted) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Bhagat Singh Koshyari- were present.
Two other MPs: Mala Rajya laxmi Shah and Ajay Tamta -aside from the MP Rajya Sabha Tarun Vijay, senior BJP leaders Satpal Maharaj, Trivendra Singh Rawat and others attended the rally too.
State BJP president and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ajay Bhatt, Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli and several MlAs were found leading the rally from the front.
BJP leaders said the days of the Harish Rawat Government were numbered with the people being determined to oust it.
They said that the Congress-led Government had failed on all fronts-law and order, corruption and employment generation for the youths.
It is learnt that over 20,000 people participated in the Vidhan Sabha gherao rally which started from Bannu School, Race Crouse. Water cannons were used to disperse the surging crowd, an action that seemed to have failed to restrain the rallyists as much as police expected.
Seventeen BJP MlAs and 246 party activists, including leaders, were arrested at Rispana Bridge as they tried to break the barricade to march towards the Vidhan Sabha. later, they were released.
The Dehradun administration and police were on their toes as massive police force was deployed in anticipation of the huge turnout. DM Ravinath Raman, SSP Dr Sadanand Date, SP City Ajay Singh, City Magistrate lalit Narayan Mishra and other senior cops remained stationed at Rispana.
Police had put four barricades at separate places that lead to Bannu School at Race Course and Vidhan Sabha, the sites of the protest. However, despite the heavy police deployment for the rally, police faced a tough situation as the saffron rallyists looked determined to surge on, breaking the barricade. The BJP men were found arguing with police who looked equally determined to stop them at the barricade. Some BJP leaders, including Umesh Aggarwal, were found altercating with the police. Things seemingly spiraling out of control, water cannons were pressed into service.
State BJP leaders looked elated with the massive turnout at the rally. Buoyed by the teeming crowd surging ahead to break the barricade, the leaders said that the countdown of the Congress-led government has started, a process that, they said, would end in the ouster of the Government at the next hustings slated in the first half of 2017.
Addressing the rally, the speakers tore into the State Government on the matter of corruption. A slew of scams facing the State, they demanded high-level inquiries into each of them and a White Paper on it. Besides, the issue of the alleged step-brotherly treatment of the Centre to the State Government figured during their speeches. They said it was just a bluster to hoodwink the people on the matter of non-development.
They further said that the Harish Rawat Government had reduced itself to one of empty assurances, a laughing stock of the people.
Among the leaders who were arrested and later released were Ajay Bhatt, Madan Kaushik, Ganesh Joshi, Pushkar Dhami, Sahdev Pundir, Rajkumar Thukral and Umesh Aggarwal.