Resentment against Samajwadi Party chief and local Lok Sabha member Akhilesh Yadav is rising day by day in Azamgarh over his continued absence from the constituency. Now, prominent Muslim political party of Azamgarh, Rashtriya Ulama Council, has also expressed its ire, denouncing the SP chief as “Twitter wala neta”.
Akhilesh Yadav has visited Azamgarh only once after winning the seat in the parliamentary elections in May 2019.
Maulana Rashidi said, “The Samajwadi Party chief, despite being the local MP, was nowhere when the police let lose a reign of terror against women staging peaceful protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens.
Akhilesh Yadav on Monday, however, defended himself saying, “I am not a missing MP. I will soon visit my constituency.”
Posters that have appeared in Azamgarh have questioned Akhilesh Yadav’s silence over the police lathicharge on women protesters. The posters have appeared in district collectorate and other localities of the Azamgarh town, which is also the divisional headquarters. They were pasted by a leader of UP Congress minority cell.
The Samajwadi Party has already constituted a committee to inquire into the police lathicharge on anti-CAA protesters this month..
Committee member and former minister Ram Murti Verma, while condemning the posters against his party chief, said, “It is an act of anti-social elements. If Congress is being the vilification campaign, they must have done it for cheap publicity. He added that Akhilesh Yadav had close bonds with the people of Azamgarh.
The police in Azamgarh arrested 19 anti-CAA protesters on February 6 on charges of sedition and fired tear gas shells to disperse the protester. Police also lodged FIRs against 35 persons.