Priyanka Gandhi demands that Lakhimpur Kheri panchayat polls be held again

You must fight, and all of us will fight for you, Gandhi told reporters at Semra village in Pathgava block of Lakhimpur Kheri district.UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu was also present during Gandhis meeting with Ritu and Anita.The Congress general secretary further said, This is a fight for democracy.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday met two women with whom the BJP workers had allegedly misbehaved and demanded that the recent panchayat elections be held in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh be canceled and re-polls be held.

She is on a two-day visit to the capital city ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls next year.

On July 9, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had alleged that the BJP workers misbehaved with his party candidate Ritu Singh and her proposer Anita Yadav. He also claimed that the saffron party workers pulled the sarees of Ritu and Anita.

''I came to meet them because they are women, they are my sisters, and I want to tell (them) that every woman of India stands with them. I told them not to feel afraid, and to have confidence.

"One day, you (the two women) will file the nomination papers, and emerge victorious in the polls. You must fight, and all of us will fight for you,'' Gandhi told reporters at Semra village in Pathgava block of Lakhimpur Kheri district.

UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu was also present during Gandhi's meeting with Ritu and Anita.

The Congress general secretary further said, ''This is a fight for democracy. Women were given reservations in our democracy so that their rights can be upheld. And the situation has become such wherein a woman went to file her nomination papers, and she was beaten up. This is not democracy. I demand that this election be canceled, and also at all those places where these types of incidents have occurred, and re-polling be held.'' Putting the ball in the state government's court to fix things, she said all those responsible for such an act should be held accountable.