BJP’s ‘Maha-Gherao’ rally here against the alleged all-round failure of Congress government in Rajasthan turned out to be a damp squib as the rally led by senior party MPs and MLAs could not withstand the resistance from the police.

The participants of the rally had to trace their steps back abandoning their plan to lay siege over the state secretariat.

Thousands of marchers moving towards Statue Circle from three directions carrying posters, banners, placards with ‘Nahin Sahega Rajasthan’ scribbled on them when they were stopped midway by the police. They could not touch the front road, about half km away from the secretariat, as there was a massive police deployment to check their entry.

As the protestors were not ready to give up the police had to resort to force including mild lathi charge and use of water cannons. In the melee, eight persons including five BJP workers were injured. The protestors are being treated for serious internal injuries, said a senior doctor attending to them, adding that they were all out of danger.

After a public address by prominent party leaders at the BJP Head Office, thousands of workers led by Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and BJP State President CP Joshi hit the roads marching towards the Secretariat.

Top BJP leaders Arun Singh, party in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Kirori Lal Meena, Lok Sabha MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and local MLAs took part in the march riding a tractor. When the police used water cannons to disperse the crowd, many of the party leaders, including BJP state president Joshi, collapsed on the road.

Later, they said, “The anger of the people is like a volcano, it will explode against the Gehlot Government in the elections.”

In the morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet, “The way the present Congress rule has turned Rajasthan, the land of heroes and heroines, into a quagmire of misery and infamy, the public wants to get rid of it soon. The resolution taken by the people to uproot the misrule of the state is going to get a big boost from this campaign of the BJP.”

After being soaked in cannon water, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Jal Shakti Minister, alleged, “The Gehlot Government is steeped in corruption. The Lal Diary (Red diary) contained the secrets of the acts of omissions and commissions by its minister. There must be many such diaries in all the departments. Public will expose them all in the upcoming assembly polls.”

The BJP cites deteriorating law and order situation leading to atrocities on Dalits and women, rapes, corruption, farmers’ suicide and unemployment as proof of all-round failure of the Gehlot government in the state.

While riding the tractor with his MP colleagues, Arun Singh, party in-charge, claimed that thousands of farmers committed suicide in Rajasthan in duress unable to pay back crop loan as the Gehlot Government was reluctant to give a loan waiver despite its assurance in the 2018 assembly polls.

As the pressure from police force mounted on them, the BJP leaders and workers courted arrest and were taken away in a roadways bus to the Vidhyadhar Nagar area where they were released after police formalities.

The entire ‘Secretariat Maha-Gherao’ action and movement by the BJP leaders and workers lasted for about three hours from the party office to Statue Circle and the dispersal of workers, and clear roads were seen within one hour.