Priyanka’s resolve puts Yogi in a bind; govt looking for option to break the deadlock

Pushed to the back foot the Yogi administration is looking for option to break the deadlock after Congress general secretary (UP east), Priyanka Gandhi has made it clear that she “will not go back without meeting the family members of the Sonbhadra massacre victims and would prefer to go to jail than signing a bond for release from police custody.”

Priyanka spent the whole night at the Chunar guest house. At night she came out and sat with party workers who are staging dharna outside the guest house. “She sought our opinion about future strategy. We are unanimous that we should not to go back without meeting family members of the victims. She patted my back and said I also want the same,” Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay kumar Lallu, who is with Priyanka said from Chunar.

Later, she wrote a series of tweets saying her only demand is that she wants to meet the family of the victims. She even wrote that she hasn’t committed any crime “and hence why should I give bond for my release. If meeting the family of the victims is a crime, then UP government can put me in the jail," she said.

Lallu says Priyanka is cheerful and is having regular discussion with the party workers. She wants to know their opinion about how to strengthen party at grass root.

He confirmed that Congress workers and Priyanka have been arrested and have been asked by the administration to furnish the bond for their release.

The resolve shown by Priyanka and the state wide protest by Congress workers has caught the Yogi government unawares. A senior official in Lucknow said that meetings were held entire night to find a way to break the deadlock. “We cannot allow her to go to Sonbhadra village. If we allow one party, we cannot stop others,” the official said.

“The second option is to bring some victims from Sonbhadra village to Chunar guest house and allow a meeting with Priyanka. This looks feasible and we are working on this line. We are waiting for a go ahead from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in this regard,” the official said on condition of anonymity for obvious reasons.

What made administration nervous was the belligerence shown by Priyanka. Her late night tweets invigorated party workers and her arrest slowly became the fulcrum of political unity as all the political parties have started throwing their weight behind Priyanka.

Officials own admission they never thought that the issue will stretch that long. “We had allowed her to meet injured people in hospital. We thought that once stopped she will go back to Varanasi, address media there and fly back to Delhi. What had happened is against our expectations,” he said.

The nervousness in the BJP is too palpable because Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Dr Dinesh Sharma in separate media interactions tried to blame Congress for the massacre in which 10 people lost their lives. “The seed of discontent were sown in 1955 when Gram sabha land was given to a society. In 1989 the said land was registered on the name of an individual. In 1955 and 1989 Congress was in power. Had the then Congress government taken steps the pogrom of people in 2019 could have been prevented,” Yogi said.

Congress law maker Aradhana Mishra says that the said land was sold to Gram Pradhan in 2017, who opened fire killing 10 people. Whose was in government at that time Yogi ji, asks Mona.