Struggling to register its presence and counter the groundswell of public support for Yoga, the opposition Samajwadi Party on Wednesday organised a cycle ride across the state claiming that it was a better therapy for good health than Yoga.
SP general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav flagged off a cycle rally in Etawah on Wednesday and
said, ``Cycling is not against International Yoga Day or Yoga. It is ahead of Yoga for good health. If one regularly rides cycle, one will be disease free and will never have ailments pertaining to heart and blood pressure, joint pain and constipation. What a person benefits from 10 Yogasans can be got by five minutes of cycling per day.‘’
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had directed party office bearers to take out the cycle rally in the morning and do Yoga afterwards as per their convenience.
Akhilesh has been on the backfoot as he had to face embarrassments on two successive days. On June 19, his father Mulayam Singh Yadav despite being in lucknow stayed away from an Iftar party held at state SP office in lucknow. The very next day, Mulayam Singh attended a dinner hosted by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in honour of the Prime Minister. Mulayam Singh also had a one to one chat with the Prime Minister. After these incidents, Akhilesh was under tremendous pressure to do something different on World Yoga Day.
SP workers and leaders organised Cycle Yoga across the state on Wednesday morning from 6 am. Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said that cycling was complimentary to Yoga and asked youths to regularly go for cycling and do Yoga.
Chaudhary denied that by organising cycle rally, the party was opposing International Yoga Day. “Cycling is a part of Yoga besides its is the SP's election symbol," he said.
In lucknow, the main function was held at Janeshwar Mishra Park where several SP leaders including MlC Rajpal Kashyap and others were present. Surprisingly, Akhilesh Yadav did not participate in any cycle rally in lucknow.
State BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak criticised the SP for doing politics on International Yoga Day. "Yoga has been adopted by more than 200 countries. Such gimmicks by Akhilesh Yadav and his party show their contempt for Indian culture which has been adopted by the entire world. As the entire country was doing Yoga, cycling by SP leaders and workers show that they have lost touch with the masses," said Pathak.