MoS Ajay Mishra skips Modi’s meeting with BJP MPs as party to take out 'Jan Vishwas Yatra' amid Lakhimpur row
NEW DELHI: Beleaguered Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni on Friday was absent at a meeting of the BJP MPs from Uttar Pradesh with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning.
About three dozen BJP MPs on Friday called on the PM over breakfast as part of an exercise in which Modi meets the Parliamentarians from the party ranks over breakfast. It wasn’t immediately known whether Teni was asked to keep away from the meeting.
The last leg of the Winter session of Parliament remains paralysed over the demand of the Opposition for the resignation of Teni over the findings of the SIT, which is probing the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
The PM is learnt to have asked the BJP MPs to spend time in their constituencies and promote various initiatives, including sports, as part of the ongoing Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav to commemorate the 75th year of Independence. Modi has, so far, met the BJP MPs from Northeastern and southern states in batches.
Meanwhile, a Lakhimpur district court on Friday rejected a second bail application of the main accused Ashish Mishra.
According to Senior Prosecution Officer (SPO) SP Yadav, the second bail application was moved Friday in the court of in-charge Chief Judicial Magistrate Mona Singh by his counsel Awadhesh Singh.
Rejecting the bail application for the gravity of crime, the court said in the order that there were not enough grounds for granting the plea, according to Yadav.
This bail application was filed after the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court had on December 14 allowed the Special Investigation Team probing the case to add sections 307 (attempt to murder), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous harm with dangerous weapons) in the FIR.
It had also permitted the SIT to impose sections 3/25/30 read with section 35 of the Arms act, which were not part of the original FIR filed against Ashish and 12 others.
The court had also allowed the SIT probing the case to drop sections 279, 338 and 304A of IPC from the FIR number 219, which was related to the death of four farmers and a local journalist.
Eight people, including the four farmers and the journalist, were killed in the violence that erupted in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3 when a group of farmers was staging a protest against the visit of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to MoS Ajay Mishra native village for a function.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will flag off 'Jan Vishwas Yatra' of BJP from Mathura on December 19, an office bearer of the party said.
The 'Yatra' was earlier to be flagged off by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, but since no confirmation was received from him, it will now be done by Adityanath, Madhu Sharma, District President BJP, said.
The CM will address a public meeting at Mathura's Ramlila ground before the start of the 'yatra'.
Union ministers Mahendra Nath Pandey and Santosh Gangwar too will address the public during yatra at Akbarpur and Naujheel areas.
The Yatra will cover Mathura, Chhata and Mat Vidhan Sabha areas of the district, Sharma said.
BJP is undertaking six Jan Vishwas Yatras from as many areas including Braj and Awadh.
All six yatras will culminate in Lucknow on January 10, 2022, she said.
(With PTI Inputs)