BJP boycotts Speaker's all-party meeting

The Bharatiya Janata Party boycotted the all-party meeting convened by UP Assembly Speaker to seek cooperation of all parties in the smooth conduct of the Budget session starting from Thursday.

Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey sought the support of leaders of all political parties in the smooth conduct of the House as per parliamentary procedures and appealed to them to co-operate with the chair.On the occasion, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav assured the Speaker of full cooperation of the ruling Samajwadi Party in conducting the proceedings of the House and said that the Budget session was very important for the development of the state.

Justifying their boycott of the all-party meet, deputy leader of BJP legislature Party, Satish Mahana, who would act as leader of his party in the House, said “the present Government was not addressing the problems concerning the people and we also have no hope from them so there is no point in attending the meeting”.

He said the BJP would “vociferously raise in the House the issues affecting the people to make the Government accountable for its failures”.Denying that the BJP would seek resignation of the Chief Minister, Mahana said that they would leave it on the Government. “If they have any morality than they should respect the recent verdict against the Samajwadi Party Government and quit themselves,” he added.

leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Swami Prasad Maurya, said the Bahujan Samaj Party would raise issues of public interest in a forceful manner and put the Akhilesh Government in the dock over deteriorating law and order in the state. “Akhilesh Yadav should have resigned on moral grounds,” Maurya said, adding that the law and order, power crisis, plight of farmers and issues of sugarcane growers would be raised by his party in the House. 

On frequent transfers of officers, Maurya said that until the Government had the will to bring in change, shifting of Principal Secretary (Home) or DGP even a dozen times would not solve the problem. 

Pradeep Mathur of Congress said his party would attack the Government on issues like dismal law and order, crime against women and the bad shape of roads, among other issues.