Rahul, Priyanka visit Lakhimpur after high drama

| | Lucknow
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Rahul, Priyanka visit Lakhimpur after high drama

Thursday, 07 October 2021 | Preetam Srivastava | Lucknow

Rahul, Priyanka visit Lakhimpur after high drama

Admin lets Cong cavalcade move after stopping it

After high drama at the Lucknow airport on Wednesday morning when a Congress delegation led by Rahul Gandhi was stopped from proceeding to Lakhimpur Kheri in their private vehicles, the State Government finally bowed down to political pressure and allowed them to visit the homes of the victims of the Sunday violence in which four farmers were mowed down and five others lost their lives in lynching.

Rahul and others later joined Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who was detained at Sitapur and together proceeded to Lakhimpur Kheri in a massive cavalcade.

Rahul and Priyanka arrived at Lakhimpur Kheri late in the evening in a procession of vehicles and called on the family of 19-year-old Lovepreet Singh who died on Sunday, allegedly run over by a car driven by Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son. Talking to media, Priyanka said that they will fight for the family till the Minister was sacked and his son was arrested.

Besides Rahul and Priyanka, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel,  Punjab CM Charanjit Channi, senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala and Deepender Hooda were  part of the team.

Earlier at the Lucknow airport, Rahul alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Police asked him and others to proceed to Lakhimpur Kheri in police vehicles. Threatening to sit on indefinite dharna at the airport, Rahul tweeted a photograph of heavy police presence as he and other Congress leaders waited at the Lucknow airport.

“I’m not going to move from here. I’ll sit here for any number of days,” Rahul said. After a brief stand-off, the three leaders were allowed to proceed towards Lakhimpur Kheri from the airport.

The decision to allow them to proceed to Lakhimpur Kheri was taken after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting with the officials and assessed the situation on Wednesday morning. Soon after the decision, Priyanka was released from custody in Sitapur and was asked to end her “satyagraha”.

The State Government obviously also realised that the restraining the movement of Congress leaders was keeping them in the media limelight and giving them political mileage.

Soon after her detention on early Monday morning, Priyanka started a “satyagraha” and even kept fast telling the authorities that she will end it only after she was given permission to meet the family members of the victims in Kheri. When she questioned her detention, the authorities on Tuesday registered a case against her and officially informed her that she was arrested.

However, she was not produced in the court and kept in a PAC guest house which was turned into a temporary jail. A large number of Congress workers have been camping day and night outside the makeshift jail.

Later in the evening, she joined her brother Rahul, Baghel and Channi and proceeded to Lakhimpur. The Congress leaders are scheduled to visit farmer Lovepreet’s house in Chaukhara and journalist Raman Kashyap’s house in Nighasan to meet their families. Both died at the Lakhimpur Kheri site on Sunday.

Delegations of Samajwadi Party, AAP, and Bahujan Samaj Party also visited Lakhimpur. Interestingly, Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who too was heading for Kheri, was detained by the police in Moradabad.

Speaking to the media persons, ADG Law and Order Prashant Kumar said the Government had no intention of restricting anyone’s movement but the curbs had to be imposed to ensure peace in the region.

“Movement of people was restricted but now permission has been given to visit in groups of five. The local administration had imposed restrictions to maintain peace. All those who want to visit can visit. The motive of the State Government was only to  maintain peace at all cost”, Prashant Kumar, IG law and order, said.

Meanwhile, targeting the Yogi Government over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, Vadra on Wednesday said that voices of justice for the farmers are being muffled by the BJP Government.” Those who oppress the farmers are roaming freely. The voices of justice for the farmers are being muffled by the BJP Government. But we will not let the voice of justice be suppressed,” the Congress leader said in a tweet in Hindi.

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