With both Congress and Bharatiya Janta Party already launched their campaign for next Parliament elections, Samajwadi Party will also kick-off their claim for power in the Centre with a massive `Desh Bachao,Desh Banao' rally in Azamgarh on Tuesday.
State government had made elaborate security arrangement with special vigil has been kept of the venue after serial bomb blasts in Patna just before Gujrat chief minister’s Narendra Modi on Sunday. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will be the star attraction in the rally to be held at ITI ground.Almost all the UP ministers and senior leaders would be present in the rally which will also be a show of strength for the party in comparison to the Narendra Modi's two public meetings at Kanpur and Jhansi early this month.
The rally would also coincide to the end of the first phase of '17 backward community Adhikar Rathyatra'and 'Samajik NyayRathyatra' to demand for social justice and converting 17backward castes to Schedule caste category, launched from lucknowon October 24. SP had announced to organise 18 such rallies in the state with the last one at lucknow on December 14. The two rath yatras will also end on December 7, after covering the entire state. Azamgarh, is a strong hold of the SP as they had won 9 of the 10 assembly seats in the district during the last assembly elections though BJP's Ramkant Yadav is the sitting lok Sabha member. The area has a sizeable number of Yadav and Muslim population, the core voters of the SP.
Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent of Police(SSP) of Azamgarh Arvind Sen said here on Monday that elaborate security would be in place during the rally. He said that 6 police officials have been rushed from outside the state to monitor the security system. The rally ground and its adjoining area will have 10 companies of PAC along with 50 commandos and bomb disposal squad.
Intelligence sleuths have also been deployed in the rally site. He said to strengthen the security cover at the rally, 18 ASps, 34 DSPs, 46 Inspectors and 235 SIs have been deployed. Ruling Samajwadi Party ideologue Dr Ram Manohar lohia is being ignored in Azamgarh since for the past 10 years as the district authorities did not cared to install the statue of Dr lohia lying in the dumps. SP government is launching the lok Sabha election campaign from the city on Tuesday, but there is no SP leaders to question why the statue of Dr lohia is kept in the store of the collectorate. The full size statue of Dr lohia was brought here in 2003 when Mulayam Singh Yadav government came to power but none cared for its installation so far even in the present SP rule during the past around 19 months. The previous Nagar Palika Chairman Girish Chandra Srivastava had wrote several letter to the government for selecting a place to install the statue but there was no response. However the present Chairperson of the Nagar Palika, Ms Indira Devi, who won on BJP symbol told the media persons on Monday that she will send a proposal to the government very soon for installation of the statue.