The unfortunate killings of eight people including four farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district have raised the political temperatures in the poll-bound state. While opposition leaders are rushing to meet the family members of the deceased farmers, the UP government, citing law and order issues, had been doing all it could to stop them before granting conditional permission.
On Monday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and a few other party leaders were detained in Hargaon on their way to Lakhimpur Kheri. She was later arrested and a video of her sweeping the floor of the Sitapur government guesthouse went viral. Priyanka was finally allowed to go to Lakhimpur. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and chief ministers of Punjab and Chhattisgarh were also allowed to meet the grieving families after initial resistance.
While the aggressive posture adopted by the Congress over the Sunday incident has led some experts to believe that revival for the grand old party in UP is on the cards, some others are linking it to the Punjab assembly polls, due early next year. “Nothing in politics moves without any visible electoral gain,” said a Delhi-based political expert who didn’t want to be named. “Besides being farmers, all the four killed were from the Sikh community,” he said, hinting at possible reasons for vigorous politicking by the parties.
Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too is seen competing with the Congress in making noises over the unfortunate incident. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party claimed that its leaders, MP Sanjay Singh and Punjab co-incharge Raghav Chadha, were arrested while trying to reach Lakhimpur Kheri on Tuesday. However, according to news agency PTI, there was no statement on the arrest issued by the authorities.
The Trinamool Congress, looking to spread its footprints outside West Bengal, claimed that its leaders including MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sushmita Dev, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Pratima Mondal and Dola Sen “dodged” the cops to reach Lakhimpur on Tuesday to meet the families of the victims. “Only leaders of those parties with negligible or zero presence in UP politics were not stopped,” said the analyst.
In contrast to the Congress, AAP and to some extent TMC’s aggressive positioning over the incident, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have stopped themselves with symbolic protests and token statements. While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was prevented from travelling to Lakhimpur Kheri by the police outside his residence in Lucknow on Monday, BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra cited a police notice and the law and order situation to suspend his trip.
“They (police) have handed over a notice that says that our programme in Lakhimpur has been suspended due to the law and order situation and no party or leader is allowed. We have decided to suspend our programme; will decide on the next steps,” Mishra was quoted saying by news agency ANI.
So why are both the UP-based parties – SP and BSP – not making too much noise over the issue?
Here too it’s votes that are guiding their decisions. “Can you imagine the Congress with a crisis of dedicated grassroots cadres taking the lead over the caste loyalty-based and vibrant cadre support parties like the SP and BSP over the issue and that too on their home turf?” said the expert, hinting at the caste of the alleged perpetrator in the case.
Ashish Mishra, accused of mowing down the farmers under his vehicle, is the son of union minister Ajay Mishra, a two-term MP and a Brahmin. The community constitutes around 12% of the UP population and is among the largest voting blocs in the state. In the absence of any proof, a section of the community is ready to give a clean chit and believes that Mishra is a victim of a political conspiracy.
The incident also comes at a time when the state polls are round the corner and political parties are aggressively wooing Brahmin voters. In the past, the BSP has tasted success with the backing of the community. The SP on the other hand would be happy if the community votes get divided between the BJP and the BSP. For the Congress, with Lucknow remaining a far-off dream, winning back Punjab remains its top concern.
For the Yogi Adityanath government in UP, having received flak for its handling of the Hathras fatal gang-rape and Sonbhadra shootout cases, managing Lakhimpur Kheri well within 48 hours of the incident is nothing less than political redemption of sorts.
Read all the Latest News , Breaking News and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.
Comments
0 comment