Kanpur: Samajwadi Party MLA Amitabh Bajpai and other senior party leaders, who were planning to take out Kisan Yatra from the Ganga barrage, were put under house arrest on Monday afternoon.
The yatra was planned by the local SP leaders to express solidarity with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav who had to go to Kannauj to take part in the tractor rally to be taken out as part of the Kisan Yatra in support of the farmers agitating in the outskirts of Delhi.
A huge police force was deployed at MLA Amitabha Bajpai’s house in Sarvodaya Nagar and at the places of former MLA Muneendra Shukla and Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha leader Sarvesh Yadav.
“Police were deployed today at my house and at the houses of other leaders to prevent us from taking part in the Kisan Yatra which was to be taken out at 1 pm,” said SP MLA Amitabh Bajpai while talking to reporters.
The SP workers, when tried to take out the yatra, were put under house arrest or taken into custody, he said. Earlier at around 8 am, without any prior official intimation, police arrived and told them that they could not take out the yatra, he further said.
“When I told the police that the yatra will be taken out come what may, they sealed all the roads leading to my house and the houses of other senior party leaders and remained stationed there till late evening hours and none was allowed to enter or leave the house. The party workers taken into custody were released late in the evening hours”, Bajpai added.
Meanwhile, members of the Samajwadi Yuva Sikh Morcha who were to take part in the Kisan Yatra of the Samajwadi Party (SP), were taken into custody by the Nazirabad police on Monday.
SP leaders-- Kanwaljeet Singh Manu and Uzma Solanki--were taken into custody by the police at Sangeet Talkies area from where they were taken to the Nazirabad police station.
Manu said that they were to take out a `Tractor Yatra’ in the city to express solidarity with party chief Akhilesh Yadav but police had stopped them.
He said, “The Modi government is only befooling farmers. How it is possible that the farmers’ income will be doubled when the three bills are ‘anti-farmer.”
“Samajwadi Party is with the farmers in their agitation, and the future course of action will be decided soon by the party’s top leadership,” said SP leader Uzma Solanki.
She said that by using the force, the Yogi government will not be able to suppress the morale of the SP workers. “SP is with the farmers in their `Bharat Bandh’ and will take part in it,” she added.