NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Lakhimpur Kheri and meet the family members of the farmers who were killed in the recent violence there.
In a letter, the AAP leader also urged the prime minister to take along with him leaders of all political parties.
"I would urge you with folded hands that in this great hour of grief and sorrow, you should change your intention of organising any festival and visit Lakhimpur Kheri with the leaders of all the parties to meet family members of the farmers who were brutally crushed under the car of your minister and murdered for no reason," Singh said in his letter.
"Sitting among those families, you should repent, apologise, sack your minister immediately, arrest the culprits and, being the head of the council of ministers, take the responsibility for this incident... Not only UP but the whole country is also immersed in mourning and shock, how can you celebrate a festival," he questioned Modi.
The remarks came at a time the prime minister was in Lucknow to inaugurate the 'Azadi@75 - New Urban India: Transforming Urban Landscape' conference-cum-expo and also to launch development projects.
Singh, joined by his party workers, has been sitting on a 'dharna' in Uttar Pradesh since the state police stopped him at Biswan in Sitapur while he was en route to Lakhimpur Kheri in the early hours of Monday to meet the family members of the farmers.
Eight people died and several others were injured on Sunday in the bloodiest clash since the farmers' protest over the Centre agri laws began last year.
Four of the dead were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
There were two BJP workers, a local journalist and a Union minister's driver, allegedly pulled out of the vehicles and then lynched by the protesters.
Two cars were set on fire.