Can Priyanka Revive The GOP?

On the night of October 3, Congress general secretary and Uttar Pradesh incharge Priyanka Gandhi flew into Lucknow from Delhi. Her flight landed at 9 pm and she immediately left for Lakhimpur Kheri where, earlier in the day, violence had erupted in Tikunia town after four farmers were mowed down by a convoy of Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’.

- Ashish Misra

The state government had sealed all the roads from Sitapur, which is on the route to Lakhimpur Kheri, and every vehicle coming through was being checked. Priyanka’s convoy reached Sitapur at 11 pm, 100 km from Lucknow. Here, Priyanka asked Congress district president Utkarsh Awasthi, a local who knew every route from Sitapur to Lakhimpur Kheri, to take the wheel. After dodging the police for about four hours, Priyanka’s convoy reached Hargaon, a town adjacent to Lakhimpur Kheri but could not break the cordon there.

Priyanka was taken into custody and placed under house arrest at a police guesthouse in Sitapur. By the next day, after she went on a hunger strike, the entire nation’s focus was on Lakhimpur Kheri. Priyanka was adamant about meeting the families of the farmers killed in the Tikunia incident. The state government finally relented on the third day. After being in police custody for 57 hours, Priyanka, along with her brother and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who had also arrived by then, met the families of the murdered farmers late on October 6.