Congress chalked out legal plan to corner BJP on Lakhimpur violence

NEW DELHI: The Congress had prepared an elaborate legal plan in response to the killing of farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri, but ultimately decided to not to take up a legal battle at this point and continue to mount political attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to two senior Congress functionaries.

The two, who asked not to be named, said one part of the plan was to appeal to National Human Rights Commission. The second was to knock on the doors of the Supreme Court seeking a courtmonitored probe into the incident. So far, no major political party has demanded intervention by the National Human Rights Commission into the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

The third was to challenge the imposition of section 144 in UP that empowered the UP police to detain Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi at Sitapur on Sunday evening and prevented party leaders from reaching Lakhimpur Kheri.

“We even prepared the legal note,” said one of the two, but the party’s leadership, including both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi decided against seeking legal recourse, and to fight it out politically. With election in Uttar Pradesh due in less than six months, the Congress is expected to up the ante politically, although the leader said the legal options haven’t been completely ruled out, especially in terms of seeking a court-monitored probe or one by NHRC.

The plan to go to court to seek a probe was also kept in abeyance as the party felt it was important for Congress leaders to first reach there to step up the political heat against the Yogi Adityanath government. “The state government has already ordered a probe by a retired judge. Thus, at this stage a fresh demand for a court-monitored probe was found unnecessary. But we can make a demand for a court-monitored probe at an appropriate time if we see the investigation is not progressing in right direction.,” the second leader said.