Ludhiana: Punjab Police detained BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu on Saturday after he staged a protest near Punjab Agricultural University as Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's cavalcade passed through Ferozepur Road.

Bittu waved a liquor bottle, eggs and tomatoes during the protest. Holding the bottle outside the university, he said he was "returning the bottle" so that Mann could "enjoy his liquor while other AAP leaders loot Punjab".

The protest came a day after Bittu alleged that eggs and tomatoes were thrown at his convoy near Batala while he was travelling to Pathankot to participate in the BJP's anti-drug 'Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra'. BJP president Nitin Nabin had launched the yatra.

Bittu had alleged that AAP workers damaged vehicles in his convoy during the incident.

"If they throw eggs and tomatoes at us, we will return them. If AAP protests against BJP yatras, BJP will also protest democratically against the chief minister. We will not stay silent," Bittu said.

He said the BJP would organise peaceful protests outside venues where the chief minister's programmes are held, and maintained that police action would not silence political opposition.

The former Union minister had claimed that more than 100 AAP workers targeted his convoy and hurled stones and eggs at it.

"A window pane of two escort vehicles broke. They also damaged the jammer vehicle," Bittu had alleged.

Bittu was subsequently detained by Punjab Police and taken away from the protest site.