Irked by the Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi being detained when she was heading towards Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the site of recent mass killing, the Uttarakhand unit of Congress party burned the effigies of union and UP governments in Dehradun on Friday. Ten people were killed in the massacre in Sonbhadra. The party has also decided to hold marches in all district headquarters on Saturday to register its protest on the 'arrest' of Priyanka Gandhi.
Speaking on the occasion, the President of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) Pritam Singh said that Sonbhadra incident shows that the condition of law and order in UP has reached its nadir. He accused that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP government is engaging in harassment of the leaders of opposition. He added that BJP governments in centre and states and trying to politicise every incident to take out of political mileage. Condemning the massacre of Sonbhadra in which ten persons lost their lives, the PCC President said that it is highly deplorable that Congress general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi was 'arrested' by UP government when she was on her way to meet and console the grieving families of victims of the mass murder. He claimed that the 'arrest' of Priyanka Gandhi was done on the behest of Union government. Large number of Congress party leaders and workers assembled at Rajiv Bhawan, the state headquarters of the party and took out a protest. Amid shouting of slogans, the Congress workers torched the effigies of union government and state government of UP.
Former Minister Hira Singh Bisht, Vice President Surya Kant Dhasmana, former MLA Rajkumar, Sanjay Paliwal, Chairman of disciplinary committee Pramod Kumar Singh, Mahanagar President Lal Chand Sharma and others participated in the protest.