For a second time this month, the Yogi Adityanath government prevented Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders from taking out a foot march to the state Assembly on Monday.
Led by SP president Akhilesh Yadav, about 119 MLAs and MLCs, along with other party leaders, started marching towards the Assembly on Monday morning but were stopped by the police since they did not have the requisite permission.
Police officials asked the SP MLAs to take an alternative route to the Assembly but they refused.
As the crowd swelled, Akhilesh and the party MLAs squatted on the ground and staged a dharna a few metres from the party office.
The SP MLAs carried placards with had slogans against the Yogi government.
A heavy deployment of police had been made at the SP office and all roads were heavily barricaded.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told reporters that SP MLAs were well within their rights to attend the assembly session.
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"However, if they have not taken permission for the march, they cannot be allowed to disrupt traffic movement on the roads," he said.
On September 14, the state government had thwarted an SP dharna in protest against various issues concerning the people.
The police had barricaded the entire area and Akhilesh was prevented from coming out of his house while other senior SP leaders were also confined to their homes.
Also on Monday, RLD MLAs also staged a protest at the statue of Chaudhary Charan Singh in the Vidhan Bhawan.
