Congress leaders, workers and supporters held protest marches in Chandigarh and Shimla on Friday as part of the party’s nationwide agitation ‘Kisan Adhikar Divas’.
While party workers from Punjab, led by PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar, held a protest march from Congress Bhawan located in Sector 15 in Chandigarh to Punjab Raj Bhawan, Haryana leaders including HPCC president Kumari Selja, former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the party’s national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala led a march from the state’s party office situated in Sector 9 and tried to gherao Haryana Raj Bhawan.
Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and many other leaders from Punjab also participated in the protest to express solidarity with the ongoing farmers’ protest against the three farm laws.The workers marched towards Punjab Raj Bhawan and tried to gherao it but were stopped by the police. The police used water cannons and barricades to stop the protestors. Several Congress workers were also detained by the police.
Kumari Selja, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, senior Congress leader Kiran Chaudhary and other party leaders were also taken into preventive custody by Chandigarh Police.Chandigarh Police had made elaborated arrangements to tackle the protesters. It stopped them quite some distance away from both the Raj Bhawans and took them into preventive custody. They were later released.In Shimla, Kuldeep Singh Rathore, chief of Himachal Pradesh’s Congress unit, along with party leaders and workers staged a protest outside the state Raj Bhawan. Holding placards and banners, the protester raised anti-NDA slogans and expressed their solidarity with the farmers while demanding a repeal of the farm laws enacted by the Modi government.
