Taking a dig at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said that a transgender candidate fielded by his party from Ayodhya –Faizabad Municipal Corporation has forced the CM to take over the party’s campaign for civic polls across the state. Akhilesh has decided to stay away from the campaign and assigned the job to the second line of party brass.
“Due to the SP’s transgender candidate at Ayodhya –Faizabad Nagaar Nigam, Yogi is not only campaigning across the state but he also launched his campaign from Ayodhya which speaks for itself,’’ said the SP chief at a press conference in lucknow on Friday.
“The BJP knows that it has lost ground in UP in a short time of eight months. Hence, they have deployed their star campaigner Yogi Adityanath, who is is criss-crossing the state to ensure victory of BJP candidates. Instead of doing anything good for the people, the BJP regime has made the life of common people miserable by double whammy of demonetization and imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST),’’ commented Akhilesh.
Steering clear of the controversy surrounding controversial feature film ‘Padmavati’ scheduled for release on on December 1, the SP chief said that he would not waste time and energy over an ‘unnecessary dispute’ and that he had no time to even understand what the issue was all about.
Akhilesh however criticised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for writing to the Centre seeking postponement of the release of ‘Padmavati’ arguing that it could create law and order problem in the state.
“The BJP government has brought a bad name to Uttar Pradesh by running away from its basic responsibility of maintaining law and order and ensuring safety to the people. By using the movie as a shield, the BJP government was attempting to shrug off responsibility of maintaining law and order in the state,’’ said the SP chief.
“The gruesome murder of BJP leader Shiv Kumar Yadav, his boduguards and a child during a shooting in Greater Noida on Thursday is ample evidence of the poor state of law and order in the state. Now the BJP government was trying to make an excuse by seeking Centre intervention to defer the release of Padmavati on the ground of law and order,” he said.
Announcing that he was not averse to any secular alliance in future elections in the state, Akhilesh claimed that he had good relations with all the parties. “I am ready for alliance with any party. But let the other parties too, toe the same line,” the SP chief said.
Reacting to the statement of BSP chief Mayawati on seat sharing with secular parties in Gujarat, Akhilesh said “I am the only one who has been fighting against the BJP in UP. It is the responsibility of other political parties to join me.”