With the war of words hotting up between a Cabinet minister and a BJP legislator from Ballia, with the former calling teh MlA a `cycle chor’ and the rlatter equating the minister with `kutta’ (dog), state BJP chief Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey asked party leaders to act with restrain and act as per decorum.
President of Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj Party and cabinetminister Om Prakash Rajbhar called BJP MlA from Ballia Surendra Singh a ‘cycle chor’.
The reaction came after Singh equated Rajbhar with a dog saying that he would go and join the party which would lure him with bones.
Singh was reacting to the recent meeting between Rajbhar and Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav. After the meeting it was speculated that Rajbhar might join the SP.
“He (Rajbhar) has no standing. He will go and join the party that throw bones athim,” Singh, who is MlA from Berriya in Ballia said.
When Rajbhar came to know about the statement, he said that Singh was a cycle chor. “His (legislator’s) mental condition is unstable. He should come to Varanasi so thathe could be admitted in a hospital,” the minister said.
The state BJP president however issued warning asking ministers and law makers not to make statements which were against the spirit of BJP’s ideology.
“I have earlier asked leaders to maintain a decorum. They should desist from issuing statements against the government or party leaders,” Pandey said.
Some BJP law makers seem to be suffering from the foot-in mouth syndrome. Early this month, Singh had equated officers with prostitutes saying the latter were better than the officers. While addressing a public meeting in Ballia on June 6, Singh had said: “This is unfortunate but is true that prostitutes are better than officers in UP. Prostitutes take money and do whatever their clients ask them to do. But in UP,0 officers take money (bribe) but there is no guarantee that they will do the work for which they have taken money.”
Singh even asked the people to record conversation if officers asked for bribes. “Bring that audio to me and if I find it correct, I will beat that officer with sandals,” the MlA had promised.
The BJP had distanced itself from the MlA’s officer-prostitute remark saying that the party does not ascribe to such statements.
Another BJP MlA from Gopamau Assembly segment in Hardoi, Shyam Prakash had alleged that state officers were corrupt. “Farmers aren’t happy with the government because officers are not listening to them. There are several other reasons responsible for party’s debacle,” he said reacting to the defeat of BJP in Kairana and Noorpur bypolls on May 28.