BJP indulging in castebased politics: Akhilesh

KANPUR: Launching an attack on chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said Etawah (Akhilesh’s ancestral place) reared lions and asked if the CM knew which part of Hanuman Chalisa to recite to overcome the fear of lions.

Akhilesh said while the ‘samajwadis’ (socialists) were trying to take the state and the country forward, the BJP leaders were doing caste-based politics.

Criticising the CM’s statement where he said people should recite Hanuman Chalisa to ward off monkey menace, Akhilesh said: “If monkeys can be prevented from harming people by reciting Hanuman Chalisa, can he also tell how to keep lions away, because lions are increasing here (in Etawah). They are afraid of these lions, so will they have some mantra to overcome their fear.”

During his tenure, Akhilesh had built Lion Safari in Etawah.

“Instead of dealing with monkey menace, he is asking people to chant Hanuman Chalisa to ward them off,” he said.

Flagging off ‘Samajik Nyay Evam Prajatantra Bachao, Desh Bachao’ cycle yatra of Samajwadi Party youth workers in Saifai town of Etawah, Akhilesh said instead of paying cane farmers their dues, the CM was asking them not to grow sugarcane.

The SP’s cycle rally, which began from Ghazipur on August 27, is headed to New Delhi to culminate at Jantar Mantar into a public meeting on September 23. This is the first cycle yatra of the party between UP and the national capital.

SP’s state spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said the party was carrying out an intensive mass contact campaign to make people aware about the party’s principles and policies and to expose the unkept promises of the BJP government and their misrule.