Mumbai:
Demonstrations by NCP workers took place in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra in protest against the attack on Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi today. Pawar, 71, was slapped by a man claiming to protest against price rise and corruption.
NCP workers took to the streets in large numbers to express their anger against the attack on their leader. Demonstrations on roads here resulted in traffic snarls at several places. Suburban rail services were disrupted for a few minutes after NCP workers came out on the tracks at Masjid Bunder and Kurla stations. They were quickly dispersed and train services restored, said the Railway Police.
'Rasta roko' were held by the activists at various places like Mulund, Easter Express Highway, Vikhroli, Mahim, Byculla and Saath Rasta, police said. Suspected NCP workers also forced some shop-owners to down their shutters in Sion, Dadar, Worli, Antop Hill, Shivaji Park and Kandivali areas. In Pawar's native district Pune, party activists staged 'rasta roko' on highways around the city.
Similar protests by NCP workers were also held in Solapur and Nashik. Traffic on the busy Pune-Mumbai Expressway was temporarily affected as a result of the protests. In adjoining Navi Mumbai, the agro produce market was closed in protest. In Baramati, Pawar's native place in Pune district, traders observed a bandh. Pune's Mayor and NCP leader Mohansingh Rajpal has called for a bandh on Friday.