The proposed visit of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to Azamgarh on Wednesday has caused discomfort to the Samajwadi Party as Azamgarh is the Lok Sabha constituency of party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
On February 5, the Azamgarh police had booked 135 people for sedition naming 30 of them in FIRs for protesting against the CAA. Besides, 20 people were arrested, including an Ulema Council leader.
The SP chief has been on the receiving end of local people’s ire over his protracted absence from the constituency and posters have been pasted on walls across the city questioning Akhilesh’s absence in the wake of the recent police crackdown on anti-CAA protesters.
The SP contested the 2017 Assembly polls in alliance with Congress and Priyanka had negotiated seat-sharing with Akhilesh. Ignoring the objections by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SP chief had left over 107 seats for the Congress.
Priyanka will be visiting SP’s pocket burrough Azamgarh to meet people who suffered due to the police brutality during the recent anti-CAA protests on Wednesday.
Protesters, including women, in Bilariyaganj area of Azamgarh were injured after police cane-charged them to disperse the anti-CAA protests.
Earlier, Priyanka had visited families of the victims of anti-CAA protesters who died in police firing in Meerut, Bijnore and Ferozabad while Akhilesh had sent a party delegation to those families with a cheque of Rs 5 lakh as compensation.
“It’s a futile exercise by Priyanka and she will draw a blank as people are aware of the designs of the Congress and BJP. If she is so concerned about people’s welfare, she should visit the Congress-ruled Rajasthan where close to 100 children died in a government hospital in Kota,’’ SP spokeswoman Rajendra Chaudhary said.
As per a Congress party release, Priyanka will reach Azamgarh on February 12 and meet people who were booked and manhandled by the police for participating in protests against CAA in Bilariaganj area of Azamgarh last week.
Her visit is being seen as an attempt to strengthen the party base in the SP stronghold after posters claiming Akhilesh as ‘missing’ were put up by workers belonging to the minority cell of Congress last week.