The Congress on Friday organised demonstrations across Uttar Pradesh against the paper leaks in national entrance tests, showcasing its enthusiasm following the general election results.

Its pre-poll ally, the Samajwadi Party, stayed away.

About 4,000 Congress workers were arrested across the state, some 400 of them in Lucknow.

State Congress president Ajay Rai, who led the protest in Lucknow, was arrested after he and other demonstrators broke through the police cordon near the Vidhan Sabha (Assembly) building and chanted anti-Narendra Modi slogans.

"We want Prime Minister Modi and Union education minister Dharmendra Prasad to resign because they are conspiring against meritorious students. They do not care about such incidents (paper leaks) because their own people are directly involved in the crime," Rai said before the police shoved him into a bus.

From inside the bus, Rai told reporters: "The NDA government is involved in the leaks of question papers of more than a dozen examinations. The most recent is the leak of the UGC-NET papers. There was forgery in the NEET examination, too. This is dangerous for the students."

Congress leader Dwijendra Tripathi said: "We wanted to gherao the Vidhan Sabha but the police used force to stop us. Some of our workers have suffered injuries after the police kicked and punched them."

He added: "It shows the enthusiasm of the Congress, which has organised such a massive protest after a long gap. We have succeeded in exposing the Modi government, which is anti-people and anti-education."

A police officer said: "We will release the Congress protesters after they furnish personal bonds in the evening."

The Congress, which had won just one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh in 2019, won six this time. The Samajwadis improved their tally from 5 in 2019 to 37. The BJP’s seat count fell from 62 to 33.

A group of youths carrying the flag of RSS student arm ABVP burnt Pradhan’s effigy in front of the district collectorate in Kanpur and demanded his suspension from the government.

"We are with the students," said Saket Singh, a youth who claimed to be an ABVP member, in Kanpur.