Lakhimpur Kheri killings show democracy is being strangulated : TMC

Trinamool Congress on Wednesday said the killings at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh showed that democracy is being strangulated in every BJP-ruled state.

The party in a tweet in its official website said "Democracy is repeatedly being STRANGULATED and BRUTALLY ATTACKED in every single @BJP4India ruled state!"

TMC attached a purported video of a car zooming past and hitting few men in its tweet and said "The people of this country deserve better. The #KillingRaj of BJP must be stopped!"

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier condemned the death of people in violence during farmers' protest in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.

"Strongly condemn the barbaric incident in Lakhimpur Kheri. The apathy of @BJP4India towards our farmer brethren pains me deeply," Banerjee, who is also the TMC supremo, had tweeted.

A delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs had dodged the police and visited the affected families in UP a day ago after being initially stopped by the state administration.

A five-member delegation of TMC) leaders, who had allegedly identified themselves as tourists, had met the families of the deceased farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri on Tuesday. This was the only delegation of Opposition leaders that managed to travel to violence-hit place amid prohibitory orders issued by the district administration.

Four farmers had died in Lakhimpur Kheri after they were allegedly run over by the convoy of Ashish Misra, the son of Ajay Misra, the union minister of state for home affairs, ahead of the visit by UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. Another four individuals, reportedly BJP workers, were killed in the violence that followed.

The farmer leaders had claimed that some cultivators were protesting against the Centre's contentious farm laws when the vehicle carrying BJP workers knocked down a few of them. But an official account said the incident took place when the farmers hurled stones at the vehicle and it overturned.

BJP MP Locket Chatterjee on Wednesday said while the UP administration is taking every step to deliver justice to the victims' families and allowed political parties to go to the spot, the TMC government in West Bengal did not allow leaders of the saffron party to meet those who were brutally attacked by miscreants supported by Mamata Banerjee's party.