Ranchi, May 31 (IANS): The shutdown called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to protest the petrol prices hike Thursday was a success in Jharkhand, where the party is ruling.

"People have voluntarily kept shops shut in the state. The shutdown is successful and historic," state BJP president Dineshnanad Goswami told reporters in Jamshedpur.

Shops were closed, city buses and auto-rickshaw were not plying in many parts of the state.

The BJP workers, while enforcing the shutdown in Ranchi, put tyres on fire on main roads to hinder traffic, police said.

Hundreds of workers were arrested in Ranchi. The BJP's Lok Sabha member P.N. Singh was also arrested along with the party workers in Dhanbad district, said a police officer.

The railway services were affected in districts of Ranchi, Koderma, Dhanbad and Giridih as protestors squatted on railway tracks to voice their anger against petrol price hike.

The coal transportation and mining activities also were affected in some parts of the state.