Priyanka released, leaves for Lakhimpur with Rahul

Lucknow: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra left for Lakhimpur Kheri Wednesday evening from a PAC guest house in Sitapur where she was kept in detention since Monday morning.

Sitapur Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Sadar) Pyarelal Maurya said that Priyanka Gandhi has been released from detention. On their way to the violence-hit Lakhimpur Kheri from Sitapur, Rahul and his sister Priyanka Gandhi are travelling in one vehicle, while Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and Deepinder Hooda are in another. Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel are in another vehicle. Sources said they may first stop at Nighashan in Lakhimpur district, the native place of journalist Raman Kashyap who also died in Sunday's violence.

Nighashan is around 100 km from Sitapur. Gandhi had reached the Sitapur guest house on his way to Lakhimpur Kheri from the Lucknow airport in his own vehicle. He had staged a brief dharna at the airport after initially being asked to travel in a police vehicle. Gandhi had reached the Chaudhari Charan Singh airport here this afternoon from Delhi along with Channi, Baghel and Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala.

"Rahul Gandhiji along with Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel have left for Lakhimpur Kheri from the Lucknow airport," UP Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh told PTI in the afternoon. In a tweet, Surjewala announced that the Punjab and Chhattisgarh governments will provide Rs 1 crore assistance to the families of each farmer and journalist killed in the Sunday violence.

Junior minister Ajay Kumar Mishra met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday for the first time since a murder case was registered against Mishra's son for allegedly mowing down four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, sources said.

Mishra also attended his first-floor office in the North Block here and stayed for about half an hour before visiting Shah at his residence.