Mumbai Congress, on Sunday, staged a noisy protest against the rise in fuel prices and runaway inflation, which has burdened the masses owing to the policies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre. The protest was held near the Swaminarayan Temple in Dadar, where Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived to address Mumbai's business leaders and industrialists for the first time after presenting the Union Budget 2021-2022. Congress workers showed black flags to Sitharaman.
However, the police stopped the protesters from reaching the venue, a police official said. The protest was led by Mumbai Regional Congress president Bhai Jagtap, who was accompanied by working president Charan Singh Sapra and spokesman Sachin Sawant.
As the union minister reached Yogi Sabha Grah in Dadar, around 400 to 500 Congress workers started shouting slogans against her, the official said. They also raised slogans in praise of their party leader Rahul Gandhi. They shouted slogans against the Union Budget and the increasing prices of essential commodities like petrol, diesel, cooking gas cylinders as well as railway fares.
The protesters had started assembling outside Dadar railway station early in the morning, the official said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 4) Vijay Patil said, "The protest took place peacefully. No untoward incident was reported. No one has been detained and no FIR has been registered."
Mumbai Mahila Congress general secretary (administration) Sana Qureshi claimed that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many have lost their source of income. "Now, the increasing prices of essential commodities will break the back of the common man. The budget has not offered any relief to them," she said.