BJP LEADERS AVOIDING DIRECT POLLS: AKHILESH

Azamgarh: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday targeted the BJP claiming that if the ruling party had the strength, its leaders would have fought direct elections to enter the state legislature. “They (BJP) have given ‘prasad’ to our MLCs and taken them in its fold. If they have strength they should have fought direct elections to enter the House. Don’t know what ‘prasad’ they have given to MLCs,” Mr Yadav said, attacking the saffron party. His comments came after the BJP announced that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his two deputies, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, will contest the upcoming UP Legislative Council bypolls on seats vacated by SP and BSP MLCs, who subsequently joined the BJP. Mr Yadav, a former chief minister, was here to unveil the statue of martyr Ramsamujh Yadav, who died during the Kargil war. He later addressed a gathering in Natthupur. Continuing his attack, he said that the Yogi Adityanath government did not help the families of children who died in a Gorakhpur hospital. He quoted a report to claim that those who died were mostly from the backwards classes and Muslims.