Scoring political points over venue
LUCKNOW: Political sparks flew as the Yogi Adityanath government celebrated the state’s 68th foundation day as Uttar Pradesh Divas for the first time on Wednesday.
About an hour before vice president Venkaiah Naidu, governor Ram Naik and Yogi Adityanath reached the Awadh Shilp Gram for the first UP Divas, the Samajwadi Party (SP) used the social media to tell people that the venue had come up during the Akhilesh Yadav regime.
A few minutes later, Adityanath said the Awadh Shilp Gram had been constructed at a cost of about ₹200 crore, yet there was no clarity about how it was meant to be used.
He said officers informed him that the venue could be used for marriage ceremonies etc.
“Officers informed me that this could be used for marriage ceremonies (shaadi vivah). We asked officers to use the venue for the ‘one district one product scheme,” he said on the occasion.
Joining issue with the chief minister, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav soon said in a statement, “The BJP government is only inaugurating the already inaugurated projects. Awadh Shilp Gram was inaugurated during the tenure of the SP
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The law and order situation is improving but the Yogi government is yet to complete a year in office. Instead of making comments, the Congress leaders should look at the law and order situation under their rule. VIJAY PATHAK, Uttar Pradesh BJP general secretary
government. By ordering inquiries into the Samajwadi Party government’s projects, the BJP government is trying to give a bad name to the SP.”
This is not the first time that the Samajwadi Party has used the social media to put the focus on the work done by Akhilesh Yadav government. The SP had earlier come up with the ‘Ram Naam Japna, Paraya Kaam Apna’ slogan to make its point that the Yogi government was showing the Akhilesh Yadav government’s work as its own.
Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said, “We are fine with the Yogi Adityanath government’s decision to celebrate the Uttar Pradesh foundation day. We want to know what they will do to people of the state.”
Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar said: “We are proud that Uttar Pradesh Divas is being organised. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath should, however, have used the occasion to tell people about the steps being taken to bring about an improvement in the law and order situation. There have been dacoities, and people are being killed regularly. The Congress will begin holding its divisional conventions to discuss the law and order situation and know the opinion of Congress workers about the party’s future course of action,” said Babbar.
Uttar Pradesh BJP general secretary Vijay Pathak countered the accusations of both the parties and said, “Akhilesh Yadav and his party are a disappointed lot now. On one hand, they say Kaam Bolta Hai (Samajwadi Party’s 2017 assembly poll slogan). On the other hand, they have an objection to putting the state’s assets to public use. What’s the SP’s problem if the Yogi government is using UP’s assets in the state’s interest?”
Pathak also said: “The law and order situation is improving but the Yogi government is yet to complete a year in office. Instead of making comments, the Congress leaders should look at the law and order situation under their rule.”