High-voltage drama as BJP workers, farmers come face to face in Ludhiana
LUDHIANA : The state-level meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahila Morcha went awry on Tuesday after activists of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) staged a protest outside the conference venue at a hotel in Ludhiana.
The situation turned tense when the BJP workers went on a counter-offensive and started marching towards the protesting farmers while raising slogans. A heavy police force was deployed outside the hotel to keep the situation under control. Party’s Mahila Morcha national general secretary Sukhbir Kaur Sidhu, state president Ashwani Sharma and state general secretary Parveen Bansal were among those present.
The police formed a human chain to stop a possible clash between the SKM activists and the BJP workers. Both the groups tried to break the security cordon, but could not. The farmer activists alleged that the BJP workers hurled expletives at them. Parveen Bansal refuted the allegations.
Ashwani Sharma left the venue amid the melee.
Also, the party’s women workers were seen flashing bangles at the protesting SKM activists. They were holding the posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sukhbir Kaur Sidhu claimed that the meeting was successful and the protesters were not farmers.
“These are a bunch of workers of the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who were trying to sabotage the BJP programme. The real farmers are busy sowing paddy crops in their fields,” said Sidhu.
Later, the police managed to disengage both the groups.