Lakhimpur Kheri: Opposition leaders stopped from reaching spot; farmers allowed in

Detention of the leaders resulted in some high drama. Congress general secretary Priyanka Vadra arrived in Lucknow late on Sunday night, along with Congress MP Deepender Hooda, member of the Congress ticket seekers screening committee for 2022 UP assembly polls. Vadra was stopped by the police, but in her characteristic style demonstrated during the anti-CAA riots and in Hathras, she started walking. She got into a car ahead of her residence in Lucknow but at Sitapur she and Hooda were detained and taken to the PAC guest house. Social media clips showed Vadra and Hooda resisting the police and Vadra questioning the cops for not carrying a written order to detain her.

BSP national general secretary Satish Mishra who was to leave for Lakhimpur by Sunday midnight was also stopped. After the police produced a written notice citing law and order concerns and imposition of Section 144, Mishra agreed to cancel his plan, not before telling the media that he was under ‘house arrest’.

On Monday morning, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s residence was surrounded by heavy police force and RAF personnel. A truck also blocked the road. Stopped from proceeding to the scene of Sunday’s killings, Yadav sat on a dharna along with scores of SP workers. A police jeep was torched near his house, with SP leaders alleging the police set the vehicle on fire. Yadav was later taken to Eco Garden. Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party chief Shivpal Yadav managed to leave his residence but was stopped soon. A delegation of Congress leaders from Punjab, including deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Randhawa were stopped at the UP-Haryana border.

Earlier in the day, the state government gave orders to not let Punjab chief minister Charanjit Channi and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel to land in Lucknow.