The state-wide shutdown called by the Congress and other opposition parties against rising fuel prices received a lukewarm response in the State.
While Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers damaged a Pune Municipal Corporation bus in the city’s Kumthekar road area in the morning, it was business as usual for most shops and establishments across the city.
Most petrol pumps, however, remained shut for security reasons. Schools and colleges continued to function normally.
Robust security ensured that commute was not hit in Pune city. The Congress, NCP and MNS, took out major rallies.
NCP MP Supriya Sule led the rally in Pune while senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil headed his party’s protest in Ahmednagar district.
The ‘bandh’ received a marginally better response in Solapur district, with shops in Pandharpur taluk downing shutters in support of the shutdown. Bus services, however, were thrown awry in Nashik.
The protest fared better in Marathwada. Protests and sit-ins were observed throughout Aurangabad, Beed and Jalna whereCongress workers were seen raising slogans against the Modi government, and mocking the BJP-led NDA for the sky-rocketing fuel prices.