Srinagar: There was a face-off between BJP and Congress workers outside the Congress office here on Monday, with rival groups raising slogans against each other before police intervened to disperse the protesters.
The episode unfolded when BJP workers, including women, assembled outside the Congress headquarters on Maulana Azad Road here carrying party flags and raised slogans targeting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his party.
Accusing the opposition Congress of electoral malpractices, the BJP protesters chanted, “Rahul Gandhi is a thief,” and “Where will you find vote thieves, only in the Congress office?”
Tensions escalated when the BJP workers sought to stage a sit-in outside the Congress headquarters. A large number of Congress workers, including women, subsequently came out of the office and began raising counter-slogans against the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Congress workers accused the BJP of undermining democracy through alleged vote theft and raised slogans declaring, “We will bring down the government of vote thieves” and “Modi and Amit Shah are thieves.”
The Congress protesters also raised slogans against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, demanding his resignation.
As workers from the two parties continued shouting slogans against each other, the situation turned chaotic, with the gathering also disrupting traffic movement along the busy Maulana Azad Road.
Police personnel intervened to prevent the confrontation from escalating further, while women police personnel were also called in to manage the agitated women workers from both sides and bring the situation under control.
The tense scenes continued for some time before police dispersed the rival groups, following which normalcy returned to the area.
Meanwhile, BJP Mahila Morcha on Monday tried to ‘gherao’ the Congress office here to protest against Manipur MP Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, who was sacked as JNU professor over sexual harassment charges.
The BJP women workers assembled at Pratap Park along Maulana Azad Road and tried to march towards the Congress headquarters. However, police personnel deployed there stopped them.
BJP workers raised slogans against Rahul Gandhi and accused him of shielding sexual predators. They also set fire to his effigy.
When the BJP workers were shouting slogans, a group of Congress workers came out of the headquarters and raised slogans against the BJP-led central government at the Centre and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Before the workers from the two parties could engage in a scuffle, police successfully persuaded both sides to disperse peacefully to maintain law and order.
Akoijam, a professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems under JNU’s School of Social Sciences, was dismissed with immediate effect on October 9 following an inquiry into sexual harassment allegations against him, charges he has denied.
According to reports, at least 11 female students had filed sexual harassment complaints against him in May this year. The complaints alleged that he invited students to his campus residence on the pretext of meetings or gatherings and attempted to sexually harass them. Some students had also alleged that he made obscene and inappropriate remarks in class.
An FIR was registered against Akoijam on Sunday on charges of sexual harassment and insulting a woman’s modesty based on a complaint lodged by JNU’s chief security officer.
