Lucknow, Oct 3: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has left for Lakhimpur Kheri, a Congress spokesperson said, after the party expressed apprehension that she may have been put under house arrest in Lucknow to prevent her from going there.
The Congress general secretary will meet the farmers injured in the violence that erupted during a protest over Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit to Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday.
According to officials, eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the incident.
Priyanka and party leader Deepinder Singh Hooda arrived in Lucknow on Sunday night.
“Priyankaji has left for Lakhimpur Kheri,” UP Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh told PTI.
Earlier, a party leader had said, “Priyankaji has not left (for Lakhimpur Kheri). There are full chances of house arrest. There are 300 policemen and 150 women constables outside the house (where she is staying). Over 300 Congress workers have also gathered there.”
Priyanka had hit out at the BJP over the violence and sought to know whether farmers had the right to live in this country.
“How much does BJP hate the farmers of the country? Don’t they have the right to live? If they raise their voice, they will be shot or crushed under a car. Enough. This is a country of farmers not the fiefdom of BJP’s brutal ideology,” she said on Twitter.
“Farmer’s agitation will be strengthened further and their voice will be louder,” she said.
Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during the farmers’ protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers.
Two SUVs were set on fire by angry farmers in the clash near Banbirpur in Lakhimpur Kheri, the bloodiest incident of violence since the protest over the farm laws enacted at the Centre began last year.
Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister. They were allegedly thrashed to death.
The four others were farmers, officials said.
Several people were hospitalized, according to the two sides.
