A day after Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Gorakhpur, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, was served a show-cause notice for anti-party statements, Gorakhpur MP Ravi Kishan demanded his resignation for “working against the principles of the party”.
The BJP issued a show-cause notice to Agarwal for his social media posts reportedly maligning the party’s image and the UP government. Agarwal had termed the Yogi Adityanath government as a “government of Thakurs” and his talk with a BJP worker, that went viral, did not go down well with the BJP brass.
Hitting out at Agarwal for misleading the public with his statements, Ravi Kishan said that if the legislator had so many problems with the policies and principles of the BJP, then he should resign.
Speaking to media persons in Gorakhpur on Friday, Kishan targeted Agarwal over dishing out irresponsible statements on social media. “He (Agarwal) is continuously obstructing undergoing development works in Gorakhpur and is tarnishing the party image with his outrageous statements,” alleged the Bhojpuri actor-turned-first-time MP.
“Agarwal is levelling false allegations against party officials. In one of his audio clips, he clearly accused the UP government of doing caste politics, which is shameful. Due to such acts, the morale of party workers and officials dips,” he further said.
In the contentious viral audio clip, Agarwal can be heard telling a BJP city unit worker that Thakurs harass Banias as it is a “government of Thakurs”. “Yeh Thakuro ki sarkar hai. Mujhe maloom hai ki BJP me kya ho raha hai,” Agarwal is heard saying.
The tussle between BJP MP and the Sadar MLA of Gorakhpur has its genesis over a road on Gorakhpur-Deoria highway near Singhadia that used to get waterlogged due to rains and often left commuters distressed.
After becoming MP, Kishan spoke to PWD officials to address the issue and the road was elevated which solved the problem of commuting. But as a result of the elevation of the road, adjacent areas, including two housing societies, started getting waterlogged.
Agarwal then raised this issue in the Assembly and approached Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to get the issue resolved. He even demanded action against PWD Assistant Engineer KK Singh, after which Maurya assured to attach the AE to Lucknow office.
However, MP Ravi Kishan and Gorakhpur MLAs from Rural, Sahjanwa and Pipraich came out in support of the AE and wrote to the deputy chief minister. However, the Bansgaon MP came out in favour of Agarwal.