Girls participate in the 'Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon' marathon organised by Uttar Pradesh Congress in Lucknow. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav) Congress has decided to call off all girls marathons and other public events it had planned in Uttar Pradesh citing the Covid-19 surge across the state as well the country.
This party’s decision comes a day after a few girls were injured in a stampede-like situation at a marathon it organised in Bareilly. However, the party maintained that the decision to cancel the marathons was down to Covid threat only.
“Nothing had happened in Bareilly. It happens in marathons that sometimes people stumble upon each other because of a large number of participants. However, no one was seriously injured and even the police have also admitted the same. The decision to cancel public meetings and future marathons was taken because of rising Covid-19 cases,” said a senior party leader.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was holding marathons across the state as part of the ‘Ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon’ (I am a girl, and I can fight) campaign ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.
So far, the party has held 5-km marathons in Meerut (December 19), Jhansi (December 26), Lucknow (28 December) and Bareilly (January 4), with the Jhansi and Lucknow events reportedly drawing over 10,000 runners. The party was planning to conduct more such marathons in Azamgarh, Varanasi and Noida.
After the stampede-like situation in Bareilly, an FIR was lodged against Congress district chief Mirza Ashfaque Saqlaini and other unidentified persons.
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) took suo-moto cognizance of the incident and sent a letter to the Bareilly district magistrate seeking an action taken report within 24 hours.
However, Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi alleged that the notice sent by NCPCR was part of a conspiracy hatched by the BJP. “The women of UP have been empowered by the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi ji. And that is why the BJP is doing everything to stop women from participating in UP’s politics. They are using the commission to target us.”
Uttar Pradesh, meanwhile, has reported around 1,000 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total active cases in the state to over 3,000. The cases have been suddenly rising in the 10 days after Christmas.
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