Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav alleged that it was not easy to take on the Congress especially when they use the CBI to settle scores. He also tried to underplay his relations with the BJP saying that nothing much should be read into Advani’s praise for SP ideologue Ram Manohar lohia.
“What is the big deal if great personalities are appreciated by political leaders,” the SP chief queried while displaying annoyance over the media slant over such statements.
Yadav reacted when mediapersons tried to elicit his reaction over Advani’s statement made at the inaugural session of the BJP State Executive meeting at Chitrakoot earlier on Wednesday morning.
Without mincing words, the SP chief said that whoever had done commendable work for the country, should be praised. “Same goes with Advani’s praise for lohia,” he quipped in an informal interaction with mediapersons at the SP State headquarters on Wednesday.
Yadav also expressed reservations to media reports which gave a slant to his words of appreciation for Advani. “I even appreciate Nehru and Indira Gandhi for some political reasons. Does it make any difference, if I say good things about them,” he further said.
Throwing yet another barb at the Congress, Yadav said that it was not easy to oppose the party because it had many ways to settle scores with its detractors.
“It was not easy for anyone to have enmity with the Congress as they have got thousands of hands at its disposal — the CBI being the most potent one,” he charged, and added that the Congress could use CBI against its opponents and if he said anything then he too would be witchunted by the agency and even lodged in jail.
Mulayam, however, made it clear that his party was fighting the cause of the people in a Socialist manner and would face anything that came its way.
The SP chief further said that his party has announced the name of candidates at 71 of 80 Parliamentary seats in UP and launched a number of developmental schemes. He also asked the workers and office-bearers to work in unison to ensure victory at the hustings.
Accompanying his father Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, without taking name of Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma, said: “Some people are unable to see the growing popularity of the SP Government and the SP leaders and workers were capable of giving a befitting reply to these people.”