Chhattisgarh CM sits on dharna in protest after being stopped from leaving Lucknow Airport
Synopsis
CM Bhupesh Baghel said he wanted to meet Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been in police custody since yesterday in Sitapur.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel began a sit-in protest outside the Lucknow airport this afternoon after he was not allowed to leave the premise by the Uttar Pradesh police.
"Why am I being stopped? I am not going anywhere. I am not going to Lakhimpur. Then why are you stopping me? I am not going to your Lakhimpur. Section 144 has been imposed there. Not in Lucknow," he said.
Taking to Twitter, Baghel, who was on his way to Sitapur to meet detained Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, said, "I am being stopped from going out of Lucknow airport without any orders," he tweeted in Hindi.
The Congress leader also shared a nearly one-minute-long video where he can be seen questioning the officials. "Dhara 144 to Lakhimpur me hai. Hum Lakhimpur to jaa nahi rahe hain. Problem kya hai? (Prohibitory orders are in Lakhimpur, but we are not going there. So what's the problem)," he asks a cop.
Baghel said he wanted to meet Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been in police custody since yesterday in Sitapur.
The photo he shared shows him in a white kurta-pyjama, sitting on the floor, surrounded by cops and his guards who are looking at him.
This development comes after the Uttar Pradesh government directed the Lucknow airport authority not to allow Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and the Punjab deputy Chief Minister who had to visit Lakhimpur Kheri in view of the violence that erupted there.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and 10 others were detained on Monday outside Lakhimpur Kheri and arrested on Tuesday for 'disrupting peace' and violating Section 144.