Lakhimpur Kheri incident: Is crushing farmers, stifling Oppn voices new strategy of BJP? Shiv Sena

Mumbai, Oct 4: Shiv Sena is the latest opposition party to hit out at the BJP over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. He questioned the intent of the ruling party behind stopping the political leaders from visiting the place where the incident occurred on Sunday evening which killed eight people, including four farmers.

Speaking with the reporters, Sanjay Raut said, "Farmers have been run over allegedly by the car of a minister's son (in Lakhimpur Kheri). Where does such cruelty come from?"

He said Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other leaders were stopped (by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh) from going to Lakhimpur Kheri to show solidarity with the farmers protesting over their demand for a repeal of the Centre's three agri-marketing laws.

"Does the BJP have a new strategy of crushing farmers and stifling the voices of opposition leaders who show solidarity with them?" Raut asked.

He compared the Lakhimpur Kheri incident to Britisher's running over a truck on revolutionary freedom fighter Babu Genu when protesting in Mumbai during the independence struggle.

Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

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. An FIR has been registered against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son and several other persons in connection with the Lakhimpur violence. PTI