Stung, Akhilesh says BJP has panicked

LUCKNOW: Stung by the resignations of two party MLCs, the Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that it was engaged in political corruption.

“First they did it in Bihar, got engaged in breaking the Congress in Gujarat, and now they have lured our MLCs,” Akhilesh said on the sidelines of a private function that he attended on Saturday. He said that within four months of its rule in UP, the BJP has panicked and it does not have guts to face the voters. The statement of Akhilesh is in reference to the speculations that the MLCs have quit their seats to pave way for the chief minister Yogi Adityanath and four ministers to get nominated to the Vidhan Parishad (the Council). Adityanath and his ministers must become members of the either house of the bicameral legislature. They have only two months for this, four months have lapsed.

Akhilesh said that it was only some days back that he had visited Bukkal Nawab (the first among the two SP MLCs who quit their council membership on Saturday) on Eid and ate ‘sevain’ at his home. “Don’t know what has happened since then. I will try to speak to him if he already is not in some kind of captivity (hinting at BJP’s).”

Both Bukkal Nawab and Yashwant Singh, the other SP MLC who quit are considered Shivpal camp members and Mulayam loyalists.