BJP is poaching MLCs in UP, doing 'patharbaazi', says Akhilesh Yadav

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) national president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said ‘bandookbaaz’ (gun-toters) and ‘patharbaaz’ (stone pelters)were active in BJP-ruled UP and Gujarat.

The SP chief was talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event that his party held to pay tribute to late Janeshwar Mishra, who was a prominent SP leader.

“How can you stop stone pelters? It is their job to throw stones (with reference to stone pelting on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s car in Gujarat). And in UP, those people are resorting to a kind of stone pelting on Samajwadis (socialists) by poaching MLCs,” said Akhilesh.

“But the people will give an apt reply to patharbaaz,” he said.

Akhilesh said the Samajwadi Party will continue to struggle for the poor, uprooting evils in the society. The SP will go to the public on August 9 through its ‘Desh bachao, Desh Banao’ (Save the country, build the country) campaign to rescue the country from the clutches of communal forces. He also said he would participate in an event in memory of Kargil martyrs in Azamgarh on August 30.

On the issue of reservation in jobs, Akhilesh said the government should not hurt any community. “Each community should be given reservation proportionate to its population...”