BHOPAL: Around 100 activists of Congress were today arrested for trying to lay siege to Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly demanding resignation of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Professional Examination Board scam with police using water cannons to disperse them.
"We have arrested around 100 protesters," DIG Sriniwas Verma told PTI.
A large number of activists gathered at Lily Talkies square here and held a protest meeting organised by the Youth Congress (YC) on the issue.
A string of Congress leaders, including its state unit chief Arun Yadav, Youth Congress president Kunal Choudhary, Laxman Singh, brother of AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, and others addressed the gathering and dubbed the irregularities as the "biggest scam of Asia and bigger than the Bihar's fodder scam".
They alleged that Chouhan's name had figured repeatedly in the original excel sheet seized from computer of a top MPPEB official Nitin Mohindra but was eventually "struck out".
The leaders said the names of the "high and mighty" who had recommended undue favours for their candidates to crack the professional examinations and recruitment tests too figured in the original document.
They alleged the original excel sheet was doctored to strike out the name of Chouhan and that many people, including former state minister Laxmikant Sharma who is in jail, are being prosecuted on the basis of the fudged excel sheet.
Congress has sharpened its attack on Chouhan with its senior leaders, including Digvijay Singh, Jyotiraditya Scinda and Kamal Nath, having demanded a CBI probe into the scam and resignation of Chouhan, a BJP stalwart who led the state to three consecutive victories in Assembly elections.
Earlier in the day, Congress members boycotted the customary address of state Governor Ram Naresh Yadav at the beginning of the budget session here.
They sought Yadav's resignation on the ground that name of his son Shailesh cropped up in a supplementary chargesheet in the MPPEB scam, filed in court.