With film personalities lauding the Yogi Adityanath government for promptly deciding to set up a Film City in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party claimed that the project was a dream project of former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party government is making a false claim of setting up a Film City in Noida. The BJP is now ready to inaugurate the Film City earlier developed by the SP government. But this entire exercise will be a flop show,” commented SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday.
While the UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) has hurriedly identified 1,000 acres of land for the proposed Film City in Sector 21 of Greater Noida, it was earlier earmarked for a night safari during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime in 2005. During the Akhilesh regime too, the night safari proposal was approved by the cabinet in August 2013 and was slated to be set up under the PPP Model. The safari was slated to be developed on the lines of open zoos in China and Singapore. The project however failed to take off.
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party announced on Twitter that it would not contest Bihar Assembly polls and would support Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidates.
Confirming the decision, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said on Tuesday that the party decision would boost the unity of secular forces in Bihar and stop the BJP from coming to power again.
Party sources however claimed that there were two primary reasons for not contesting the Bihar polls. Firstly, the party would focus on UP Assembly polls slated for 2022 and to get support of other secular parties. Secondly, the SP does not have a strong base in Bihar and hence does not want to waste its energy and resources.