Prime Minister
Narendra Modi reached Lucknow on Tuesday to inaugurate the ‘Azadi@75-New Urban
India: Transforming Urban Landscape’ conference and expo in Uttar Pradesh’s
capital. The prime minister’s visit took place at a time when Uttar Pradesh and
especially the state’s Lakhimpur Kheri district has been on the boil after eight
people, including four farmers, were killed in an episode of violence during
protests on Sunday.

Ahead of the prime
minister’s visit to Lucknow, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra uploaded a
video addressing Prime Minister Modi, appealing to him to visit Lakhimpur Kheri.
In the video, Priyanka Gandhi shows an unverified video that has an SUV ramming
into a group of protestors.

Also Read | Priyanka Gandhi shares viral video of farmers getting hit by SUV, tags PM

At the time of
sharing the video, Gandhi claimed that she was being held in detention for over
28 hours without an FIR or legal notice. An FIR was registered against the senior
Congress leader later on and she was arrested.

Meanwhile, Prime
Minister Modi did not address either the farm protests or the Lakhimpur Kheri
violence while speaking in Lucknow. Instead, Narendra Modi chose to slam the Samajwadi
Party for its failures when it was in government.

Also Read | Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel stopped at Lucknow airport

Modi said that
before 2017, Rs 18,000 crore was approved for Uttar Pradesh for constructing
houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana but not even 18 houses were built
by the previous government. On the other hand, the Yogi Adityanath government
has completed 9 lakh houses under the scheme and 14 lakh houses are under
construction, the Prime Minister said.

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They are stunned by your courage: Rahul Gandhi tells sister Priyanka

The Prime Minister’s
comments came one day after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was detained
by the Uttar Pradesh police when he initiated a sit-in demonstration outside
his house after he was not allowed to go to Lakhimpur Kheri. Videos of the
Samajwadi Party supremo being detained went viral on social media.