In an attempt to keep his slate clean Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav may drop his Mining Minister Gyatri Prasad Prajapati who alongwith his family members is facing lokayukta probe on corruption charges. A highly placed source in the Samajwadi Party told The Pioneer that party’s national president Mulayam Singh Yadav had summoned Prajapati after corruption charges came to light against him.
“That meeting continued for almost two hour. He was given another three days to explain his position to party’s national general secretary Prof Ram Gopal Yadav,” the source said. He said that Mulayam Singh wants to get rid of Gyatri Prajapati and everyone is waiting for Akhilesh Yadav to return from Mauritius to take a final call. The indications are senior party leadership does not want to go to next election with a baggage of corruption on their back.
A complaint was filed against Prajapati with the state lokayukta for allegedly misusing his office and amassing assets worth several crores. The complaint Om Shanker Dwivedi, has claimed Prajapati was BPl card holder in 2000 and by 2014 he alongwith his wife and two sons were directors in five companies based in Amethi, Mohanlalganj and lucknow. He had also submitted deeds of the companies showing minister’s kin as director along with his complaint that ran into 1,727 pages.
Sources claimed that there is a belief in the party that if lokayukta indicts Gyatri Prajapati the corruption charges will stick at the government. “The previous BSP Government still carries the tag of NRHM scam. The Samajwadi Party does not want to repeat that folly and therefore there is a consensus that Gyatri Prajapati should be dropped at the earliest,” the leader.
The party had earlier dropped Tej Pratap Pandey, a MlA from Faizabad, after people leveled corruption charges against him. Prajapati is not new to controversy. A widow in Amethi, the region where this minister belongs to, had once accused him of grabbing her land. Shivdevi Gupta had claimed that that when Prajapati bought a cinema hall, Vimal Palace, in Amethi, he asked her to transfer her plot to him.
When she refused the boundary wall of her house was razed.She had staged a dharna at Hazratganj against the minister. last year, the lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had issued notice to Prajapati for allegedly occupying gram sabha land in lucknow. Prajapati once wielded immense clout in government and the party. It was believed that he has the blessings of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh for his aggressive posture against Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi. For this reason he was even made incharge of Party’s campaign to include MBCs in Scheduled Caste category.
He was instrumental in taking out rath yatras across the state just before lok Sabha elections to bring MBCs in SP fold.But his efforts failed to make much political inroads among MBCs as they in fact voted for BJP in the lok Sabha elections. “He could not prove his political utility during election. So, there is no point in carrying him as minister any further,” the senior
leaders said.