Facing defeat in next assembly polls, UP BJP govt harassing SP leaders, workers: Akhilesh

Lucknow: Finding its future bleak in the next assembly elections after its humiliating defeat in the recent panchayat polls, the ruling BJP has begun harassing Samajwadi Party leaders and workers, SP president Akhilesh Yadav alleged on Monday.

He accused the state BJP government of harassing his party’s leaders and workers on the pretext of violations of Covid protocols by them.

Similar or even more serious breaches by BJP leaders and workers go unnoticed by the government authorities, he added. “The BJP was badly defeated in the panchayat elections in the state. Even in the upcoming assembly elections, they see their future is bleak,” said the former chief minister, adding this has made them act with a vengeance against the opposition.

“On the one hand, they are taking action against the Opposition, especially the Samajwadi Party leaders, while on the other, showing their double standards, they support illegal activities of their party leaders and MLAs, violating corona protocol,” Yadav said in a statement. Citing an example, Yadav said police have registered a case against 13 named and 120 unnamed people of his party for holding a meeting in the Pali area of Hardoi recently, but police “take no such action and remain a mute spectator when it comes to the BJP leaders and workers”. In another instance, he claimed, a Revenue Department team reached the house of SP leader and district panchayat member Avnesh Khatik in Auraiya recently and misbehaved with him. In yet another example, the shop of an SP leader, Joginder Singh, in Etah market was demolished ignoring a court’s stay order and he was also threatened that his house too would be demolished, said Yadav. “The arbitrariness of the BJP government is condemnable,” he added. The former chief minister said the state government is acting autocratically and dictatorially in dealing with other parties’ leaders and workers but ignoring the illegal activities of BJP leaders.

“In Kanpur, a BJP MLA is occupying the park’s land in front of his house in the name of the widening of the road but the government has simply ignored it,” Yadav alleged.