Lucknow: The political climate in Uttar Pradesh intensified this week as leaders from the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) alleged they were placed under house arrest by state police to prevent protests during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi.

Opposition leaders termed the police action “unconstitutional” and a “dictatorial” move to muzzle dissent – specifically their ongoing campaign against alleged electoral malpractices.

The claims come as the prime minister’s visit to Varanasi included a meeting with his visiting Mauritian counterpart Navinchandra Ramgoolam on Thursday (September 11).

The police action, they said, began late Wednesday after Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai announced plans to stage a protest against Modi. The protest was framed as part of the party’s wider campaign surrounding its “Voter Adhikar Yatra”, initiated by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Bihar, which highlighted alleged vote theft and raised concerns about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in that state.

The Congress and its allies have claimed that the ongoing special intensive revision is being misused to delete the names of genuine voters, particularly from communities opposed to the BJP. The Election Commission, however, maintains that the revision is a routine administrative exercise aimed at updating the rolls.

Rai claimed the police confined him to his Lucknow residence for about 16 hours. “They came to my place on Wednesday at around 11:30 pm and released me on Thursday afternoon at around 3:30 pm,” Rai stated. He strongly objected to the police action, which he said also extended to party workers in Varanasi and nearby towns such as Jaunpur.

An angered Rai, who contested the 2024 general election against Modi and lost by a margin of nearly 1.52 lakh votes, alleged that the prime minister's victory was secured through foul play. “Is protesting against the PM unconstitutional?” he asked. “This was an unconstitutional act and a deliberate attempt to suppress dissenting voices.”

Sujit Yadav, the Samajwadi Party’s Varanasi district president, claimed he too was placed under house arrest. He accused the police of inhumane treatment, stating he was prevented from attending a family funeral.

“One of my close kin died on the same day; despite my request, the police did not allow me to attend the funeral”, he said.

Yadav emphasised that their protest plan was peaceful, especially given the presence of a foreign dignitary. “We didn’t plan to burn an effigy or protest aggressively since a foreign guest was here. Simply put, we wanted to register our protest against vote theft. But the police’s behaviour was dictatorial, which cannot be tolerated in a democracy,” he added.

He also claimed that police began visiting opposition leaders a day before the prime minister’s arrival, something he said was captured by his home’s CCTV cameras.

The scale of the police action, according to local leaders, was unprecedented. Rajeshwar Singh Patel, a local Congress leader, said the crackdown targeted not just senior leaders but also grassroots workers.

“It was unprecedented; even the workers at the ward and panchayat levels of the party were kept under house arrest. Earlier, the police used to take only the top leader into custody,” Patel said. He estimated that nearly 250 party members were detained.

“We planned to demonstrate using the nationwide ‘vote chor [thief]’ slogan,” Patel explained. “The police kept me in a station on the outskirts of the town. Even though the PM’s visit has been completed, a sub-inspector and a police officer are still sitting with me,” he claimed a day after Modi had left the city.

Manoj Rai, another Samajwadi Party leader, accused the BJP of using state machinery to intimidate the opposition.

“Every time Modi visited Varanasi, the police humiliated Samajwadi Party leaders and workers. In fact, they fear us, as once a long time ago one of our workers showed a black flag to Modi,” he said. “This time too, many of our local leaders and workers were kept under house arrest in an undemocratic manner.”

Framing the episode as part of a larger political strategy, he added: “The BJP wants to capture all institutions, and this is a tactic to gag pro-democratic voices against its agenda. We [the opposition INDIA bloc] will not give up raising our voice against vote theft by fearing such intimidation.”

Local political observers also read the administration’s alleged heavy-handed approach as a sign of nervousness. Vijay Vineet, a senior journalist based in Varanasi, commented: “This was a preemptive action by the administration to thwart any attempt of protest against the vote theft in front of the PM.” He also suggested the police action was an attempt to earn “brownie points” from the ruling dispensation.

“Since the leader of the opposition [in the Lok Sabha] Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of alleged vote theft by holding a presser and launching the Voter Adhikar Yatra, the issue is also resonating in Varanasi,” Vineet said.

However, the Uttar Pradesh police have not officially confirmed or denied the house arrest of any opposition leader or worker. A message for comment sent to the Varanasi police commissioner’s office did not receive a response. This story will be updated if and when the police issue an official statement.

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