Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav stood strongly in support of Azam Khan and slammed the Opposition and media for targeting Khan on organising his 75th birthday celebrations.
“I will not leave Azam come what may, even if the SP Government falls in UP, as he has stood beside me through thick and thin,” Samajwadi Party supremo asserted while addressing a function at Mohammad Ali Jauhar University to lay foundation of a medical college and distribute bicycles and scholarships to the students in Rampur on Saturday.
Yadav was again critical of his son Akhilesh’s Government and said now the Government should focus on working and not mere announcements. “The State Ministers, most of whom are here, legislators, and even IAS and IPS officials, should at least work towards developing their native villages. Without development, nothing can happen in a State”, he stated, while adding that Uttar Pradesh had been defamed in the country for lack of development.
Yadav said that during the last UPA regime he had asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to remove P Chidambaram as Union Finance Minister, after he said that the State was lagging behind in development. He asked the people to help the poor and get rid of poverty. The former CM was all praises for Azam Khan, who had organised a grand celebration on his 75th birthday.
“I have never been honoured in such a fashion and the credit goes to Azam,” he stated. Chief Minister Akhikesh Yadav, in his address, said he will continue to take forward the State on the party’s ideology.