Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday lauded a delegation of Trinamul MPs for being the only opposition party leaders who, against all odds, succeeded in meeting family members of the farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
The statement of TMC supremo Miss Banerjee came on a day when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was stopped for several hours from visiting the area in Uttar Pradesh where eight people were killed four farmers were allegedly run
over by a car and four people in a convoy of BJP workers who were lynched – during a peasants’ protest on Sunday.
Rahul on Wednesday evening reached Sitapur where some party office-bearers, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have been kept in detention since Monday after their failed bid to meet the affected families.
“We condemn the killing of farmers in Uttar Pradesh. The farmers were brutally murdered. Only a TMC delegation was able to reach the village and meet the family members. It took them 12 hours to reach the village. No other political party could reach them. Our party MP Dola Sen disguised herself as a Punjabi to reach the area. They did a good job,” she said while inaugurating the puja edition of the TMC mouthpiece Jago Bangla.
A delegation of five TMC MPs-Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sushmita Dev, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Pratima Mondal and Dola Sen-on Tuesday met families of farmers killed in the Lakhimpur violence, claiming that they dodged policemen by posing as tourists.
At the programme, Banerjee was accompanied by a host of party leaders, including new inductees such as former union minister Babul Supriyo who quit the BJP recently.
Miss Banerjee, along with Supriyo, singers Nachiketa and Indranil Sen, also sang the “Agamoni” song which is sung on the day of Mahalaya to welcome Goddess Durga. Noted scholar and author Nrishingha Bhaduri wrote a book on Miss Banerjee’s poll achievement in 2021 titled Ramayani which the CM released today.
From Nazrul Manch, she inaugurated Durga Puja pandals inNaktala Udayan Sangha, where her party’s general secretary Partha Chatterjee was present. Next, she inaugurated Babubagan, Selimpur palli, Jodhpur Park, 95 Palli and
finally inaugurated minister Firhad Hakim’s puja at Chetla Agrani.
TMC today said that the alleged killings in Lakhimpur Kheri exhibited that democracy has been strangulated in all the BJP-run states. The party in a tweet in its official website said, “Democracy is repeatedly being STRANGULATED and BRUTALLY ATTACKED in every single @BJP4India ruled state!”
TMC attached a purported video of a car zooming past and hitting few men in its tweet and said, “The people of this country deserve better. The #KillingRaj of BJP must be stopped!” BJP MP Locket Chatterjee today said while the UP administration allowed political parties to meet the victims’ families, the TMC government prevented the saffron party leaders to meet those who were brutally attacked by TMCbacked miscreants.