Airport incident smacks of Centre's involvement: Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav Tuesday alleged that the Centre was "involved" in preventing him from flying to Allahabad from the airport here.

At a hurriedly convened press conference here, Yadav claimed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's remark, that the visit could have triggered violence, is a cover to hide nervousness and the incident shows how "scared" the government is.

"I think the government at the Centre is also involved in stopping me. State police cannot enter airport as its security is in Centre's hand," he claimed.

The former chief minister claimed that the state government could not have stopped him inside the airport.

"This is work of the Centre. I think government at the Centre is also involved in stopping me. The state police cannot enter airport as its security is in Centre's hand. Despite this police reached there and stopped me without any written order," he said.

Yadav said he was stopped from boarding a flight to Allahabad to attend a students' union programme.

"I haven't been given a reason why but it seems the general impression was that I would create a law and order problem. The CM has given a statement to this effect but they are using this as a cover to hide their nervousness because our youth have had enough," he claimed.

The SP chief said that had there been a genuine problem, the police would have objected, or asked for a change in his schedule and he asserted he would never do anything to endanger the safety of people and property.

Yadav said his programme had been finalised on December 27.

"When the event came near, three bombs exploded where the stage was set. Neither government nor administration took any action against those involved in it. In a democracy, it never happens that government helps in throwing of bombs when an event is about to take place," he claimed.

Earlier, Adityanath told reporters outside the state Assembly, that Yadav's visit could have triggered violence between rival student groups at the Allahabad University.

"The Allahabad University had urged the government to stop his visit and the government acted," he said.

On being asked to comment on Adityanath's claim, Yadav said, "I was told I will spread hatred and violence. I challenge them to show even one such charge against me, compared to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who has so many charges against him. It is the beauty of our democracy that we are seeing a sitting CM with so many cases against them."
Yadav also showed placards in which cases against Adityanath were mentioned and claimed, "He must be the first chief minister who withdrew his own cases."
Alleging that the BJP and its supporters were considering Allahabad University elections as their own polls, the SP chief claimed, "The government and all the ministers were contesting the student union polls. Whenever the CM went to university, he must have ordered his people that they should not lose the polls."