Kanpur: In a rare display of defiance against her own party-led government, Uttar Pradesh’s Minister of State for Women and Child Welfare, Pratibha Shukla, staged a dramatic six-hour sit-in at a police station in Kanpur Dehat on Thursday evening, demanding the suspension of the local station in-charge for allegedly filing a fake SC/ST case against her close aides, all BJP workers.
Arriving at Akbarpur Kotwali police station around 4 PM, the minister sat on dharna against Inspector Satish Singh, accusing him of working under political pressure and misusing legal provisions against innocent party workers. As her supporters raised slogans, the local administration scrambled to defuse the situation, with top officials including Superintendent of Police Arvind Mishra and District Magistrate Alok Kumar rushing to the scene.
Even as Circle Officer Priya Singh tried to persuade her to move inside for a dialogue, Minister Shukla refused to budge. “Tell your SP to come here and speak in public,” she said bluntly.
The protest was triggered by an FIR filed by Baburam Gautam, a resident of Madaripur Tasaddaq Ali village, accusing five individuals—Abrar, Yusuf, Aslam, Yasir, and Shiva Pandey—of using casteist slurs and issuing threats over a land dispute. All five are said to be active BJP workers and reportedly close to the minister.
“They have never misbehaved with anyone. I keep them around me because they are loyal and respectful. This FIR is an insult to our party workers,” the minister told reporters. “This is Yogi ji’s government, not the Samajwadi Party’s. We will not allow false cases against honest workers.”
The backdrop to the episode was a confrontation the previous day over a stalled road construction project behind Badhapur police lines. Minister Shukla had reached the spot after learning that local councillor Shamsad Khan had interrupted the work. An argument at the site escalated into a heated exchange between Khan and Haji Abrar, prompting the minister to summon police officers. The chowki in-charge, however, refused to take action without written instructions. A day later, the SC/ST FIR followed.
Former MP and the minister’s husband, Anil Shukla Warsi, also arrived at the protest and directly targeted local BJP MP Devendra Singh Bhole, saying, “If my wife wasn’t in politics, I would have contested against Bhole and taught him a lesson. Today, his men are running the police station.”
Warsi later spoke with Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, expressing frustration: “If you want, we will quit politics and hang ourselves. You were made Deputy CM to protect Brahmins, but now fake cases are being filed against us.”
The political drama soon spilled over onto social media, with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav taunting the BJP: “When a minister has to protest against her own police, what more evidence does the CM need? BJP will go, and law and order will return.”
“Earlier there was one scolded Deputy CM; now there are two,” he added in a sarcastic post on X.
Despite repeated assurances from district officials, including a promise to transfer the inspector by Friday, Shukla remained firm. The protest finally ended at 11 PM after she received a written assurance of action and a review of the FIR.
While the district administration has agreed to investigate, the protest by a sitting BJP minister against the police and her own party colleagues has exposed deep fissures within the ruling establishment ahead of key political battles in Uttar Pradesh.
