Firebrand Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath was detained at Kanpur railway station late on Sunday night when he was on his way to Jhansi. The entire Kanpur Central Railway Station was converted into a fortress before the arrival of Kushinagar Express train from Gorakhpur.
Yogi was immediately taken in custody at around 0200 hrs from his first AC coach and was shifted to Nawabganj Bird Santuary guest house in Unnao District. He was later brought to lucknow from where he reportedly took flight for New Delhi to attend Parliament. Sources said that Yogi was detained on the apprehension of violence during his Jhansi visit. The BJP MP was slated to visit an old Shiv temple in Jhansi to offer Jalabhishek on the last Monday of the holy month of Shravan. It was also reported that Yogi's Hindu
Yuva Vahini (A Hindu youth group) had distributed pamphlets in the surroundings of Shiv temple where there are large numbers of minorities. Tension prevailed in Jhansi after the detention of Yogi and the matter is also expected to come up in the Parliament. Meanwhile Yogi has criticised the act of the State government and alleged that the Samajwadi Party government was only functioning to appease the minorities. He also said that it is unconstitutional to detain an MP.
BJP State President, laxmikant Bajpai also came down on State government for detaining Yogi Adityanath alleging that it showed the appeasement policy of Akhilesh’s government towards minority. To stop Yogi from doing Jalabhisekh in Jhansi is clear pointer of State government appeasement for minority and Muslims", claimed laxmikant while reacting to arrest. He said that it would have been better if Akhilesh Yadav’s government had facilitated Yogi from performing puja at Shiv Temple in Jhansi than arresting him in Kanpur.