A father of four minor children who has been out of job for over a year and whose complaints of misbehaviour by his landlord over unpaid rent had allegedly not been heeded to by police tried to set himself on fire in front of the BJP office in Lucknow late on Friday.

Balram Tiwari, 45, whom policemen wrapped in blankets and rushed to Civil Hospital, was stated to be critical.

Balram’s wife Sonia said they had set out on Friday morning with their four children, aged between six and 12 years, to try to draw the attention of Yogi Adityanath or other senior government functionaries to their plight but were stopped by security near the Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s residence and the Assembly.

Balram used to work at a private chemical factory but was sacked last year because of the pandemic-induced economic doom.

“We somehow sustained ourselves with the money we had saved but failed to pay the rent of our house after October 2021. As the landlord mounted pressure on us, we somehow arranged for six months’ rent and requested him to give us more time to pay the remaining amount. But he started misbehaving with us,” Sonia said.

“Recently my husband had submitted a complaint against the landlord with the police but didn’t get any help. We left home on Friday morning and reached the gate of the BJP office in the evening. While we were sitting there, my husband suddenly poured kerosene on himself and lit a match,” she added.

The BJP office compound was being decked up at that time for some function. Sonia said the rent of their single-room house at Amrapali Yojana in the Thakurganj area was Rs 1,500 per month.

Manish Pal, the landlord, said: “Balram had recently paid me Rs 9,000 and another Rs 6,000 was due. It is not true that I put pressure on them to pay rent as I knew that they were in a crisis.”

Rajesh Srivastava, additional deputy commissioner of police of Lucknow central, said: “The policemen on duty at the spot (BJP office) somehow doused the fire with the help of blankets and water and took him to the trauma centre of Civil Hospital with 40 per cent burn injuries. A case has been registered against the landlord. We are probing the allegations of the victim’s family and action will be initiated against the guilty.”