Akhilesh Yadav detained after staging sit-in protest outside his residence in Lucknow

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was detained by the UP police after he led a brief protest outside his residence in Lucknow on December 7.

Yadav, who is the president of the Samajwadi Party (SP), stepped outside in his party's red cap and broke through police barricades placed near his residence. He squatted in the middle of the road and staged a sit-in protest with his supporters, raising slogans against the government.

Soon after, he was detained and taken away from the spot on a bus by the police.

The protest took place after the UP administration had put him under virtual house arrest earlier. The police had sealed the Vikramaditya Marg that leads to his house ahead of his party's planned Kisan Yatra against the Centre's agricultural laws in the Kannauj district.

Citing COVID-19 protocols, UP authorities stopped the SP's demonstration by denying permission to the Yatra and detaining many party leaders. They also barricaded the road, which is just 200 metres away from Yadav's home and close to the SP office.

SP planned to launch farmer marches across all the districts of the state, starting with the 13-km Kisan Yatra from Thathia to Tirwa in Kannauj.

Two Members of Legislative Council (MLC) of the SP, Udaiveer Singh and Rajpal Kashyap were reportedly prevented from going to Yadav's house too.

The SP president tweeted an Urdu couplet earlier about the situation, which roughly translates to "Wherever one looks, the people are against you. Oh tyrant, who all will you detain?"

The Samajwadi Party called it an "undemocratic move" by the UP government, saying that it was afraid of Yadav participating in the farmer protest.

Apart from SP, other political parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress also voiced their support to the farmer-led agitation against the new agricultural laws.