New Delhi:
Four-member Parliamentary delegation of Trinamool Congress has been stopped by Uttar Pradesh Police at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Babatpur, Varanasi, ahead of their proposed visit to meet family members of victims killed in clashes over a land dispute in Sonbhadra on 17 July.Â
The Trinamool delegation’s proposed visit was announced on a day Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was detained and stopped from going to Sonbhadra where 10 tribals were gunned down this week during a clash over a land dispute.
Video message from Trinamool delegation who have been detained/arrested (they still haven’t been told why!) at Varanasi airport tarmac. They were on their way to meet the injured in hospital and meet & give confidence to the grieving families in #Sonbhadra
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) July 20, 2019
Watch>> pic.twitter.com/1cSjPfZ7cT
The decision assumes significance due to the intensified political bickering and violence between the Trinamool and the BJP since the Lok Sabha elections in which the saffron party made significant inroads in West Bengal.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee had attacked each other during the election campaign in the eastern state.
The BJP has emerged as the main opponent of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal ever since the saffron party won 18 of the 42 seats in the state in this Lok Sabha polls up from two seats it had won in 2014.
The delegation has Derek O'Brien, Sunil Mondal, Abir Ranjan Biswas, and Uma Saren as its members.
At least 10 people, including three women, died and over 24 were injured in a clash between Gond and Gujjar communities over possession of 90 bighas of disputed land in the district's Ghorawal area on Wednesday. The police have arrested 29 people, including the kingpin Yogesh Dutt, in connection with the violence in Sonebhadra. A case has been filed against 78 people.
