Lucknow: Samajwadi Party workers on April 15 set ablaze vehicles and effigies of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to protest the filing of cases against party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and other senior leaders. As many as 137 cases were registered against Mulayam Singh Yadav on April 14.

Party workers set three jeeps on fire in Gorakhpur while in Bahraich, they clashed with police after they were stopped from holding dharnas. In Jhansi, over 60 SP workers, including its national treasurer Chandrapal Singh Yadav, were taken into custody after they tried to block traffic.

SP state unit general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav, however, said the protestors exercised maximum restraint even though police made "all-out attempts" to foil the party's programme.

Agitated party workers on April 14 had disrupted traffic on the national highway in Sant Kabirnagar district for over four hours leading to the arrest of 100 of them.

Reports reaching Lucknow from Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, Etah and Etawah said party workers burnt effigies of Mayawati and demanded immediate withdrawal of criminal cases filed against the SP chief and other party leaders by the state government.

PTI