Nitin Gadkari greeted with black flags in Lucknow

Lucknow: National BJP leaders, including party chief Nitin Gadkari, Monday faced protests from anti-reservation activists here who were carrying black flags and raised anti-BJP slogans.

The leaders were here to attend the `Atal Shankhnaad` rally being held to merge former chief minister Kalayan Singh`s Jankranti Party with the Bharatiya Janata Party. As soon as Gadkari and vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi came out of the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport here, hundreds of anti-reservation protestors, carrying placards and black flags blocked the airport exit. They demanded that the BJP not support reservation in promotions in government jobs when the 117th Constitutional Amendment Bill is moved in the Lok Sabha. Members of the Sarvajan Hitay Samiti said parties are "hatching conspiracy" against them. The protestors said 18 lakh anti-reservation government employees and their family members will vote against the BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2014. State BJP president Laxmikant Bajpai, however, blamed the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) for the hooliganism against his party leaders at the airport. IANS