The budget session of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly started on a stormy note on Thursday with Opposition leaders protesting against the policies of the BJP government, including the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Opposition party MLAs held up placards and raised slogans in the Assembly and interrupted the address of Governor Anandiben Patel. The Opposition leaders, led by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, then staged sit-ins outside the Assembly, holding placards on the issues of law and order, crimes against women, unemployment, rising prices of cooking gas, diesel and petrol and farmer woes, along with the burning subject of CAA, NRC and NPR.
Cylinders and onions
While the SP leaders displayed gas cylinders outside the Assembly, the Congress workers expressed their protest by holding up packets of potato and onion, as well as sugarcane.
OBC census sought
The SP MLAs also raised the demand for OBC caste census.
Ram Govind Chaudhary, the SP’s leader in the House, said the BJP had brought up the issues of CAA, NRC and NPR to “divert attention” from the questions of livelihood.
The SP was protesting against the “oppression” unleashed by the BJP government on women and other protesters demonstrating “peacefully,” holding national flags, to save the Constitution and democracy, Mr. Chaudhary said.
Leader of the Congress in the U.P. Assembly Aradhana Misra said farmers in the State were not getting proper rates for their produce and were harassed by the stray cattle menace.