Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party today alleged that the BJP is targeting the party and its top leader Akhilesh Yadav for decimating the opposition in the state. Senior SP leader and Leader of opposition in UP Assembly Ram Govind Chowdhary told UNI here that after the exit of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar from Grand alliance, Akhilesh Yadav could be the rallying point for the opposition parties to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which must have forced the BJP to target the SP president. “Nitish Kumar has surrendered before the BJP and Mr Lalu Yadav is barred from contesting elections, so the only choice for the secular political formation could be SP president Akhilesh Yadav who has the blessings of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banarjee,” said Mr Chowdhari. Already three MLCs of the SP had resigned and joined the BJP and there were reports that some others would too follow the way. “The BJP has already destroyed the grand alliance in Bihar and their next target is Uttar Pradesh,” alleges Mr Chowdhari. The Samajwadi party, which was formed by Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1992, celebrated its 25th year on November 5 last but after defeat in the Assembly polls, the party’s popularity has gone down with even inner bickerings with demand for reinstatement of Mulayam to the president post was gaining ground. The SP leader further said, “BJP instead of dominating the politics of UP and other states with the popular support is working on the pernicious agenda of debilitating the opposition parties which is evident from the poaching on the Samajwadi party MLCs who were offered inducements and later made to resign from the party”. “What prevented the BJP from asking its own MLCs to resign and facilitating the entry of the chief minister Yogi Adityanath and four other ministers in upper house of the state Legislature?” he asked. Mr Adityanath, two deputy chief ministers and as many ministers are not the members of either houses of the state Legislature and all have to obtain the membership from any of the house before September 19 to save their ministerial berths. The SP leader alleged, “The operation against the opposition parties began from Bihar where the BJP framed Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav, his son and daughter and son-in-law in corruption and succeeded in breaking the grand alliance, now their next target is Samajwadi party and its president Akhilesh Yadav.” The Yogi Adityanath government has recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the recruitment made by the UP public service commission during the tenure of the Akhilesh Yadav government from 2012 to 2017. “We welcome the probe but the cutoff date for the probe should be from 1991 instead of 2012. The first BJP government was formed in UP in 1991 and let there be a comprehensive probe and let the people know the regime which committed maximum irregularities in recruitment “, said the leader of opposition. Questioning the probe into the Gomti river front project , the SP leader said, “Everything was all right if the Sabarmati river front project is implemented in Ahmadabad , but everything turns fishy and irregular if the same project is implemented by the Samajwadi party government in Lucknow.’’ Mr Chowdhary claimed that the technical experts who implemented the Sabarmati project were also involved in Gomti river front project. Slamming the NDA government, the SP leader said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the last over three years is pushing the idea of cooperative federalism, he conveniently forgotten his own ideal as the income tax department raided the premises of the Karnataka energy minister in Bengluru without taking the State government into confidence.” He said instead of taking the assistance of the Karnataka police the income tax raiding party was accompanied by the Central reserve police force. ” Is it this kind of cooperative federalism the Prime Minister had been talking about for the last over three years”, asked the SP leader.
