The Chandigarh Police on Tuesday detained 20 Congress MLAs, Haryana party president Rao Narender Singh and state incharge Sanjay Dutt while taking out a march to protest outside the Haryana Governor’s residence.

The march was taken out in Chandigarh after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi were detained in Delhi. The Gandhis were protesting near the PM’s residence and demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

In Chandigarh, MLAs gathered at a short notice, and were stopped after they marched a few hundred metres from the party office. Some MLAs led by Ashok Arora and Geeta Bhukkal sat on the road.

They raised slogans against the Modi government and demanded Pradhan’s resignation. The assault on students at Jantar Mantar was the trigger point.

As the MLAs refused to budge, the police bundled Jassi Petwar, Induraj Narwal, Vivek Saharan and Bhukkal into a bus. They were kept at Sector 17 Police Station and released later in the evening.

Dutt said the district committees would hold protests in their respective areas and submit memorandum to the DCs for the President in solidarity with the agitating students.

Chief whip BB Batra said Pradhan should resign on moral grounds. “There have been a number of examples in the Congress regime when ministers resigned. The way students were beaten up, including girls, calls for nationwide protests,” he said.