Chandigarh (Dolly Chopra) Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and his supporters were detained while they were on their way to Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh which is on the boil.
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, Cabinet ministers Pargat Singh, Vijay Inder Singla and Amrinder Raja Warring, and 15 party MLAs were detained at the Sarsawa police station in Saharanpur, after being taken into custody by the Uttar Pradesh Police on the Haryana border. A group of 25 was later allowed to proceed further with police escort. Another group of 40 leaders, including minister Trip Rajinder Bajwa and several MLAs, was left behind at Shahjahanpur police station, located near the Haryana border. While the UP administration asked Sidhu to take along only five persons, the PCC chief insisted on marching on with all ministers, MLAs and MPs to Lakhimpur Kehri.
The administration then allowed Sidhu along with two dozen MLAs, including three ministers and MP Jasbir Singh Gill, to proceed towards Lakhimpur Kehri in private vehicles with UP Police escort. While minister Raja Warring returned home, the protesters were joined by his Cabinet colleague Gurkirat Singh Kotli.
Ahead of his detention, Sidhu was seen arguing with policemen as Congress leaders tried to push through the barricading at the border. “The fight is for our farmers. If UP Police do not arrest the Union Minister’s son till tomorrow (Friday) or he does not join investigation, I will go on hunger strike. It is my promise,” claimed Sidhu, as he called party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra “saviours of democracy”.
Earlier in the day, Sidhu had tweeted photographs of him and his supporters. Visuals from the spot showed Sidhu and his supporters being put into a bus as they raised slogans against the centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in the state.