Political News: Lakhimpur Kheri: Trinamool team sneaks in to meet grieving families

Even as many opposition leaders were detained by the UP police and prevented from visiting Lakhimpur Kheri, a delegation of five Trinamool MPs managed to enter the district and met the grieving families.

The Trinamool delegation split into two teams while visiting the spot as section 144 was imposed in the area, party sources told ET. “They stayed in different hotels. No one received them at the airport. Three people came by road from Delhi and two arrived by flight to Lucknow from Kolkata. They took the road separately, and we made sure the number did not exceed five,” a party source said.

MPs Dola Sen, Pratima Mondal, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Sushmita Dev and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar met different groups of families of victims. A video of Sen and Biswas arguing with the UP Police to be allowed to enter Kheri and asking them to be “ashamed” was also shared by the party.

Later, Dev tweeted farmers’ demands: “Postmortem be done outside UP – in Punjab or Delhi – because proof of firing is being hidden, take back the label of anti-national… It’s not compensation they want, they demand justice and arrests.” She said Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee had assured all support to farmers.

Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said: “The accused is the son of a politician, but he has killed someone and he must be penalised. India is a democratic country, but democracy is missing for the last few years. BJP is ruling like an autocratic government. They are putting everyone behind the bars except the accused and killing whoever they want. PM Modi is in Lucknow, why didn’t he visit Lakhimpur Kheri?”

Among the opposition leaders only Trinamool MPs and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary have been able to meet the victims’ families.