Maharashtra bandh: Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress to protest over Lakhimpur Kheri violence today

`The BJP-led central government has allowed the loot of agriculture produce through the three newly-enacted farm laws and now the kin of its minister is killing farmers. We have to show solidarity with the cultivators,` NCP spokesman and state minister Nawab Malik said.

New Delhi: The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra has called for a statewide bandh on Monday (October 11, 2021) to protest against the October 3 killing of farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district. The three partners in the MVA government, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, have appealed to the people to wholeheartedly support Monday's Maharashtra bandh to protest the killing of four farmers in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

"The state-wide bandh will commence from 12 midnight," NCP spokesman and state minister Nawab Malik said on Sunday.

"The BJP-led central government has allowed the loot of agriculture produce through the three newly-enacted farm laws and now the kin of its minister is killing farmers. We have to show solidarity with the cultivators," he said.

The MVA demands that Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Misha be sacked, the NCP leader added.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said that the workers and leaders of his party would observe "maun vrat" (vow of silence) outside the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai to register their protest.

Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut had on Saturday said that his party would participate in the bandh with full force and had also stated that it was necessary to wake people up against the "anti-farmer" policies of the central government.

This is to be noted that eight people, including four farmers, had died in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3. The farmers died after being knocked down by vehicles reportedly carrying BJP workers, after which an angry mob allegedly lynched some people in these vehicles. On Saturday night, Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, an accused in the violence, was arrested by the police. He was named in an FIR following allegations that he was in one of the vehicles that mowed down farmers.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Police has deployed the maximum manpower at their disposal on the streets to prevent any untoward incident during the Maharashtra bandh. The police official had said on Sunday that patrolling will be intensified.

(With agency inputs)