BSP, Congress smell a rat in CBI probe against Akhilesh

If this was a serious and unbiased action [against Akhilesh], why did the CBI not do it earlier and why has the action triggered a spate of unnecessary reactions from BJP leaders?

Mayawati, BSP leader

They did not spare any of the opposition parties... Now they have started doing the same with Samajwadi Party. They are trying to stall the alliance between the SP and the BSP

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader

new delhi — Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has accrued the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to intimidate and arm-twist its political rivals through government agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

While the Congress on Monday alleged that the Modi government was trying to foil an alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh by using the CBI against Yadav in the alleged illegal mining case.

Referring to reports that the investigative agency might question former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in the mining scam, Mayawati said the development smacked of political vendetta, with an eye on the forthcoming general elections.

Mayawati telephoned Akhilesh Yadav, with whose party the BSP is negotiating an alliance, and told him that such tactics were nothing new as the BJP always indulged in such “dirty politics and electoral conspiracies”.

She added that she and the BSP had suffered in the past in similar fashion when the previous BJP government unleashed the CBI on her.

She told the 45-year-old Samajwadi Party leader not to be deterred by such conspiracies and instead face them with his head held high.

The Dalit leader told foe-turnedfriend Akhilesh Yadav that by now even ordinary people were aware of the “dirty tricks” of the BJP and were readying to give the ruling party a befitting response in the Lok Sabha elections.

In a statement, she said the BJP was jittery as the BSP and SP were discussing an alliance and the CBI raids last week at different places and the media reports of the probable questioning of Akhilesh Yadav, who served as the Mining Minister in 2012-13, was politically motivated. “If this was a serious and unbiased action, why did the CBI not do it earlier and why has the action triggered a spate of unnecessary reactions from BJP leaders?” she asked.

She alleged that BJP leaders had suddenly becomes spokespersons of the CBI.

Speaking to reporters outside the parliament, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, said: “They did not spare any of the opposition parties be it Congress, NCP, RJD, TMC, DMK, TDP and others in the last four-and-a-half years. Now they have started doing the same with Samajwadi Party. They are trying to stall the alliance between the SP and the BSP,”

He said the CBI action, ahead of the coming Lok Sabha polls, was an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party to threaten the opposition parties.

“Today democracy is in danger. We condemn the CBI action against (Samajwadi Party leader) Akhilesh Yadav. The country is not going to tolerate this kind of dictatorship,” he said. —