Lucknow, Sep 20 (PTI) Samajwadi Party MLAs sat on a dharna in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly for about two hours on Tuesday after their demand for summoning a police officer on the issue of privileges of members was turned down.

Agitated over the police stopping an SP march to the Assembly on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday, its chief whip Manoj Kumar Pandey raised the question of propriety and said party MLAs were proceeding peacefully towards the House but were stopped.

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"Police officers stopped us and though we showed our identity cards issued by the assembly and informed that we are going to participate in the proceedings of the session, we were not allowed to come to the assembly," Pandey said.

He claimed they were stopped forcibly and that it amounted to breach of privilege of the respected members, and is a matter of propriety.

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SP MLA Lalji Verma said action should be taken by calling the officer, who led the police personnel, to the House.

On Monday, SP president Akhilesh Yadav organised a 'protest march' from the party headquarters to the assembly against inflation, unemployment, law and order situation, and harassment of farmers, women and the youth. However, the police stopped the march midway.

In his reply to the opposition party, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna said no member was stopped from coming to the House.

As per high court orders, no procession can be taken out in the high security zone in Lucknow without permission, he added.

"It was their political agenda and they did not take permission so that they would be stopped," Khanna said, adding that an alternative route was suggested to them but they were not ready and sat on a dharna.

The minister stressed that it did not amount to a question of propriety. After this, Speaker Satish Mahana disallowed it.

To this, the SP members came to the Well of the House and raised anti-government slogans. They sat on a dharna for about two hours.

SP member Irfan Solanki later told PTI that the protest ended after the speaker assured them of action.

Earlier, the House extended greetings to three of its members on their birthdays on Tuesday – Ram Chauhan of the BJP, and Sarvesh Singh and Suheb, alias Munnu Ansari, of the SP.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)