Samajwadi Party (SP) activists Thursday clashed with the police and were baton charged in this Uttar Pradesh capital while protesting the central government decision to allow foreign equity into the retail market

Extending support to the all-India strike called by traders, workers' unions and other organisations against the decision, hundreds of Samajwadi workers -- particularly from the party's youth wing -- gathered near the state assembly and forced their way through the barriers at the site.