India

WATCH: Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel stopped from leaving Lucknow airport

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was seen sitting on the floor outside the Lucknow airport. Baghel tweeted a photo after he was stopped on Tuesday by police

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was seen sitting on the floor outside the Lucknow airport. Baghel tweeted a photo after he was stopped on Tuesday by police amid widespread protests against nine deaths in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur district. Baghel was on his way to address a press briefing in Lucknow.

In a tweet, Chhattisgarh CM wrote in Hindi: "Without any order, I am being stopped outside the Lucknow airport."

The picture shows him in a white kurta-pyajama, sitting on the floor, surrounded by cops and his guards who are looking at him.

The Congress leader also posted a one-minute long video that shows him talking to officials. "Prohibitory orders are in Lakhimpur, but we are not going there. So what's the problem," he asks a cop.

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"Padiye...padiye," he is then seen telling another cop who starts reading an order amid the conversation.

"Humko kyun roka ja raha hai. Main aapke Lakhimpur nahi ja raha hun," he again says but he is told by officials that large gatherings are also banned in Lucknow.

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This is probably the first time that a Chief Minister has not been allowed to move out of an airport.

Senior Congress leaders Pramod Tiwari and P.L. Punia, who had gone to the airport to receive him, were denied entry.

Baghel, who is also the Congress observer for Uttar Pradesh, was scheduled to go to Sitapur to meet Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who is under detention since Monday and has now been arrested.

"I have come here to meet my leader but these people are not allowing me to come out of the airport. I am sitting here and will not go back without meeting my leader. I am not going to Lakhimpur but Sitapur," Baghel said, squatting on the floor at the airport.

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