The civic body here on Wednesday bulldozed shops mostly selling campaign material on the road outside the Samajwadi Party headquarters here.

The makeshift shops, mostly made of tin sheets, on the Vikramaditya Marg were illegal and their owners were sent notices several times in the last six months asking them to remove the structures, said Rajesh Singh, the zonal officer of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation.

"They were given time and an announcement was also made earlier. On Wednesday, we razed the illegal structures with bulldozers," he said.

On one side of the Vikramaditya Marg is the Samajwadi Party headquarter and on the other side are bungalows of railway officers.

Officials said the shops on the empty space in front of the bungalows affected the flow of traffic.

Helping a shopkeeper to remove the debris, one Manoj said notices were sent to them by the Lucknow Municipal Corporation after which they were not opening the shops and had removed all the materials. "We were ready to deposit money but this action has been taken," he said.

The shopkeepers said they were selling campaign material of the Samajwadi Party outside its headquarters since 2001.

Ayushi Srivastava, who got her head shaved protesting the razing of shops, claimed it was a biased action. "Why were shops removed on one side of the road only," she posed.