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Irked by the prolonged absence of local parliamentarian and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav from the district during crisis, posters of ‘Missing MP’ appeared on the walls in Azamgarh on Saturday.
Adorning the walls of the district collectorate and prominent localities of the city, the posters questioned the reason for the silence of Akhilesh over the recent lathi-charge on women protesters by the police.
The SP claimed that Congress leaders of Azamgarh were behind the conspiracy to malign the image of Akhilesh Yadav.
On February 6, the police had cane-charged and fired tear gas shells at the people staging protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Azamgarh. Later 19 protesters were arrested and charged with sedition. Those arrested were sent to jail and FIRs were lodged against 35 persons.
Local Muslim women had gathered at Johar Park in Bilariyaganj area to protest against the CAA when they were cane-charged by the police. To prevent them from continuing the dharna, the police also flooded the park with water. The protesters alleged that they were pelted with stones by the police and later cane-charged.
While denying lathicharge, the police admitted that tear gas shells were fired to disperse the protesters from the park and that women were hurt due to stone-pelting by people who had gathered near the park.
Angered by this, locals in Azamgarh, especially Muslims, hit out at Akhilesh Yadav for his long absence from the constituency.
Akhilesh has visited the constituency only once after winning the election in May last year.
So far, the SP chief has not issued even a formal statement condemning the police action in Azamgarh. He has confined his displeasure on the action through some tweets and defended the right of the people to protest.
Meanwhile, the SP set up a committee to enquire into the incidents of police lathicharge on anti CAA protesters on February 5. The committee comprises local MLA Durga Prasad Yadav, former minister Ram Murti Verma, MLAs Nafis Ahmed, Sangram Singh and Subhash Rai, MLCs Ramratan Rajbhar and Rakesh Kumar and former Azamgarh SP unit chief Havaldar Yadav.