Congress general secretary in-charge UP east, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has threatened to raise the Rae Bareli issue in New Delhi to expose how the Bharatiya Janata Party facilitates violence when it fails to get the desired results through democratic process.
Priyanka rushed to her mother Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency on Wednesday afternoon to meet Congress MLA Aditi Singh and district panchayat members who were allegedly attacked by former Congress MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh and the henchmen of his brother Awadhesh Pratap Singh, who is chairman of Rae Bareli Zila Panchayat.
The clash took place after the Congress moved a no-confidence motion against Awadhesh Pratap Singh in the zila panchayat.
In Lucknow, a Congress delegation led by UPCC president Raj Babbar and Congress MP Sanjay Singh met Governor Ram Naik and handed him a memorandum, demanding action against those who orchestrated Tuesday’s violence to prevent the Congress members from voting during the no-trust motion.
Babbar said the Governor assured them of taking up the matter with the state government.
Soon after reaching Rae Bareli, Priyanka slammed the Uttar Pradesh government and local administration, terming Tuesday’s incident an attack on democracy.
“This is an attack on democracy. Nothing of this sort has ever happened in Rae Bareli. Country-made weapons, bricks and lathis were used in the attack. Zila panchayat members were dragged from their vehicles,” Priyanka alleged, adding that one of the zila panchayat members was run over by a vehicle.
“What kind of democracy is this? There is a BJP government in the state when such incidents are taking place while the entire administration is sitting idle,” she said after a meeting with party workers in Rae Bareli.
Priyanka said the party would raise the issue at every level. “Our leaders are meeting the Governor in Lucknow. In Delhi, we are meeting the Election Commission. We will take legal recourse and file a complaint against the local administration, if required,” she said.
Later, she spoke to critically injured zila panchayat member Rajesh Awasthi over phone. Awasthi was badly beaten up during the attack.
“We are with you all and will do whatever is required to counter this illegal act. You are not alone,” she told Awasthi, who is admitted at the SGPGI in Lucknow and was to undergo surgery later in the day.
The Congress general secretary also promised to visit the zila panchayat at SGPGI on Thursday as she had a busy schedule on Wednesday.
Priyanka said they had warned the district administration that something of this kind could take place but precautionary measures were not taken.
MLA Aditi Singh was on her way to Rae Bareli to oversee the voting on the no-confidence motion against zila panchayat chairman Awadhesh Pratap Singh, who is brother of BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate Dinesh Singh.
She was allegedly attacked by Awadhesh Singh’s henchmen, who were armed with iron rods and bricks, in Harchandpur area.
An FIR was registered against Awadhesh Pratap Singh and his brother Dinesh Singh later in the night on the complaint of zila panchayat member Rakesh Awasthi, who alleged that he and two other members of the zila panchayat were attacked to prevent them from participating in the voting on no-confidence motion against Awadhesh Singh.
The state government has denied any role in the violence, saying it was a clash between two factions of the Congress. The government also said the MLA’s vehicle had overturned due to rash driving.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Lallu Singh said, “The law and order in UP has gone into the hands of goons and the remote of the goons is in the hands of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The state government, which is giving shelter to goons, now stands exposed. When an MLA can be attacked in broad daylight, one can imagine how safe the common man is in the state. There is anarchy in the state and after sensing defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has now resorted to such cheap tricks.”