Stung by complaints of harassment of Samajwadi Party activists across Uttar Pradesh, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has pressed a host of his Union cabinet colleagues and other senior United Front leaders to attend a rally at Lucknow on June 19.
Among those who are slated to attend are Prime Minister I K Gujral and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda. The aim is make a show of strength and to indicate to the UP bureaucracy and police that the Centre is solidly behind the SP and its cadre in UP.
Yadav had taken up the issue bitterly at a recent meeting of the UF steering committee, forcing home minister Indrajit Gupta to write officially to Chief Minister Mayawati.
Gujral then took up the matter and instructed that UP Governor Romesh Bhandari, who is close to Yadav, be asked to verify the complaints of political harassment.
