Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today alleged that he had been virtually put under house arrest while scores of party workers had been detained to thwart protests against Ganga Expressway Project.

"Police and PAC have been deployed around the party office and my residence since morning.... SP leaders and workers are finding it difficult to reach party office," Yadav told reporters here.

The SP had vowed to oppose the Rs 40,000-crore Ganga Expressway project linking Noida and Ballia which was launched by Chief Minister Mayawati today on the occasion of her birthday. The party had threatened to start an agitation in the affected districts from today till the project was scrapped.

Police and jawans of Provincial Armed Constabulary and the Rapid Action Force were deployed at the road leading to the SP office and were quizzing scribes and other people who approached the building. "I have been literally put under house arrest.... You (media) can also see the number of police personnel deployed outside our party office," the former chief minister, whose party was defeated in Assembly elections last year, said.

He claimed that scores of party workers had been arrested in the state capital while staging dharna to oppose the project.

Meanwhile, protesting SP workers were seen "begging" on the streets. Taking a dig at Mayawati who had asked supporters to celebrate her birthday by making financial contributions to her Bahujan Samaj Party, the opposition party said the money would be sent to the Chief Minister.

The SP had accused BSP workers of extorting money from officials for party coffers, a charge denied by the Chief Minister.

Source : PTI