Lucknow, June 3 : Lashing out at the police for detaining its leaders and workers in Ghaziabad ahead of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's arrival, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday accused the government of trying to gag the voice of the opposition.

Reacting sharply to its party workers being attacked with police batons for protesting the hike in power tariff and spiralling crime, state BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said the chief minister was following the dictatorial attitude of his predecessor Mayawati.

"This is a government which was voted to power with a promise of restoring democracy in the state. But now they are cane-charging peaceful protests against their policies," Pathak said.

The party questioned the logic of its protesting workers being put under house arrest and in police lock-ups Sunday night so that they don't disrupt the chief minister's function.

"As a responsible opposition, we are well within our rights to raise problems faced by the people and protest against anti-people measures," the BJP leader said. He added that in Budaun, false cases were slapped against its district leaders for protesting the power tariff hike.

The chief minister and senior ministers were in Ghaziabad Monday to distribute free laptops to 8,000 students who had passed their Class 12 exams and to inaugurate some developmental projects. (IANS)