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Akhilesh Yadav digs out old police cases against CM Yogi Adityanath

Former UP CM claims to be under surveillance by UP government

Akhilesh Yadav, SP chief, Samajwadi Party
amajwadi Party President and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav during a press conference at party office, in Lucknow. Photo: PTI
Virendra Singh Rawat Lucknow
Last Updated : Feb 12 2019 | 6:55 PM IST
In a virtual no holds barred war of words, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav today dug out old police cases lodged against his successor and incumbent CM Yogi Adityanath.

Yadav, who was earlier this morning prevented from boarding a chartered flight to Prayagraj (Allahabad) for participating in a students’ union function, held aloft a banner bearing the photograph of Yogi along with the official details of such cases against Adityanath.

While, Yadav, at a hurriedly convened press conference, alleged he was prevented from leaving for Prayagraj as part of the state government conspiracy to restrict his dialogue with the students community and his scheduled meeting with Akhada Parishad chief Narendra Giri, Adityanath underlined the former was disallowed owing to the apprehension of violence in the ancient city, especially with the ongoing Kumbh, wherein nearly 2.5 million pilgrims were visiting daily.

Adityanath further slammed the alleged violent ways of the SP cadres to fortify the stance of the state government, and recalled that Yadav had already visited Prayagraj 10 days back, offered his obeisance at the Kumbh and taken the customary holy dip.

Slamming the CM for apprehending violence following his Prayagraj visit, Yadav claimed Adityanath was perhaps the only CM in India with the largest number of cases registered against him. “However, this is the beauty of our democracy that such as person has now become a CM.” Yadav also held aloft similar banner for deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya saying he had even more number of cases filed against him.

Meanwhile, Yadav claimed he was under the state surveillance and a recce was conducted on his residence. “Last night, the police and local intelligence unit (LIU) personnel conducted a recce of my residence. This morning, three officials stayed put near my house since 6:30 in the morning to keep an eye on my movement,” he added.

“This (Yogi) government is anti-students and has no job agenda for the youth. The people have made up their mind to uproot this dispensation,” he asserted adding the state government was working on the ‘thoko niti, roko niti’ pointing to the police encounters and restricting the movement of opposition leaders.

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has also condemned the restriction imposed on Yadav terming it undemocratic and symptomatic of the anguish of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the SP-BSP pre poll alliance before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Yadav castigated the BJP social media cell claiming they were nurturing social media and internet terrorists while also sullying Digial India.

Meanwhile, replying to a question, the SP president observed that Congress was already part of the SP-BSP alliance since they had left out 2 seats (Amethi and Rae Bareli) for the grand old party.