SKM announces stir in Lakhimpur to push for MoS Mishra’s removal

Four farmers and a journalist died when an SUV owned by Ajay Mishra ran over farmers from behind in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farm unions that spearheaded the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s three laws, on Saturday announced an agitation in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri to push for the dismissal and arrest of junior home minister Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, whose son Ashish Mishra is the key accused in the October 3 violence that left eight people dead in the district.

People take a look at the overturned car which was destroyed in violence during farmers' protest, at Tikonia area of Lakhimpur Kheri district, on October 4, 2021. (PTI)

Four farmers and a journalist died when an SUV owned by Ajay Mishra ran over farmers from behind in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3. In the ensuing violence, three more people — two of whom were Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and one was the driver of the car — were killed. Ashish Mishra has been in jail since October 9, 2021.

“We will start a protest at the site where the farmers were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri from January 21, if the government fails to accept our demand to remove Teni,” said Bharatiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Takait, after a meeting of farm unions.

In a statement, the SKM said a permanent protest would be organised at Lakhimpur Kheri against the “brazen insensitivity” of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the case and its failure to remove Teni.

“To protest this betrayal to the farmers, the SKM has decided that on 31st January, Day of Betrayal will be observed across the country,” the statement read.

“If the government does not accept our demands before January 21, we will visit every village in Uttar Pradesh to tell people about their anti-farmer policies,” Takait added.

On farm bodies contesting Punjab polls, SKM said any leader who participates in election or is part of any political party cannot be part of the morcha. “If needed, this decision will be reviewed in April after these assembly elections,” a statement issued by farm leaders Darshan Pal, Hannan Molla, Yogendra Yadav and Joginder Singh Ugrahan, among others, said.