Mahesana: The hyped Swabhiman Yatra of the Patidar Anamat Aandolan Samiti (PAAS) slated to be held between Vijapur town of Mahesana and capital Gandhinagar today despite the denial of official permission for it, proved to be a complete fiasco.

Police arrested over 20 members and conveners of the outfit near Bhavsur crossing and Pilvai village in and around Vijapur.

PAAS had claimed that more than 20 thousand people of Patidar community will join the onfoot march which was to traverse a distance of around 50 kms, but in the morning the attendence near the beginning point of Bhavsur crossing was very thin. Police claimed that there were only a little over 20 people near the said beginning point and all of them were arrested for defiance of administrative order.

There was no administrative permission for the march for security reasons and police detained Mahesana PAAS convener Narendra Patel near Pilvai while he was on his way to Bhavsur crossing. Some other leaders and activists of the outfit including spokesperson Varun Patel and women member Reshma Patel were also detained near Bhavsur bus stand.

Later a handful of supporters of the outfit with their faces covered tried to block Vijapur-Gandhinagar road near Govindpura gram panchayat office by putting bricks and stones on the road to protest the denial of permission to the march. Senior police and administrative officials including Mamlatdar and Prant officer reached the scene and cleared the blockade.

Earlier, two days ago PAAS had claimed to vehemently protest BJP state president Jeetu Vaghani’s trip to Mahesana but it also proved to be a fiasco.

DeshGujarat