News Analysis India

Tag: Samajwadi Party

  • Yogi Adityanath ‘changed’ caste of King Mihir Bhoj for votes: Akhilesh Yadav 

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused the BJP of “changing” the caste of ninth-century ruler Mihir Bhoj and tampering with historical facts to secure the votes of a certain community.

    This comes days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath unveiled a 15-foot statue of the ruler in Gautam Buddh Nagar’s Dadri, stoking a controversy that saw sections of Gurjar and Rajput communities stake claim over the king’s legacy.

    “It is taught in history that King Mihir Bhoj was a Gurjar-Pratihar. But the BJP people have changed his caste,” Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.

    “This is condemnable. The BJP is deliberately trying to tamper with historical facts and divide society to secure the votes of a particular side,” he said.

    The SP chief added that his party stood for respect and honour for all sections of the society.

    After unveiling the statue on September 22, Adityanath had said, “No foreign ruler was able to intrude India during the rule of King Mihir Bhoj.

    They were so frightened of him that nobody dared to attack India even 150 years after his rule until Mehmud Ghaznavi invaded and plundered the country.”

    “A community that forgets its past and traditions is unable to protect its geography also, and something like this has happened with us as well,” he said then.

    Soon after, a controversy erupted between sections of Gurjar and Rajput communities in Dadri over the king’s legacy.

    Later, a video surfaced purportedly showing a local community leader tampering with the foundation stone plaque of the statue and changing the prefix in the king’s name.

    Noting the rift between the two communities, Adityanath advised them against confining great icons within the boundaries of caste, saying their sacrifices were for the whole of India to cherish.

    “Maa Panna Dai had taken Maharana to a safe place by sacrificing the life of her son. Not just the Gurjar community, but entire India should feel proud of her great sacrifice,” he tweeted.

  • Samajwadi Party workers ‘purify’ places visited by Uttar Pradesh CM Adityanath in Sambhal

    By PTI

    SAMBHAL: Samajwadi Party youth workers undertook a “purification” exercise of the places visited by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Sambhal district by sprinkling ‘Gangajal’.

    A video of the purification exercise on Wednesday has gone viral.

    A case was lodged later and Samajwadi Party Yuvjan Sabha state president Bhavesh Yadav and 8-10 others were arrested, Superintendent of Police Chakresh Misra said on Thursday.

    The chief minister had inaugurated and laid foundations of projects worth Rs 275 crore and addressed a public meeting at Kaila Devi in Sambhal district on Tuesday.

    A day later, Yadav and SP Yuvjan Sabha workers undertook the ‘shuddhikaran’ (purification) exercise of the venue of the chief minister’s public meeting and helipad by sprinkling waters from the Ganga river.

    Talking to the media during the exercise, Yadav claimed he conducted the purification drive as Adityanath has “insulted” Maa Kaila Devi by not visiting the temple when he was here.

    A resident of Sambhal filed a complaint at the Bahjoi police state alleging that Yadav’s action has upset followers of Adityanth who is also a religious leader.

    Samajwadi Party president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has often alleged that when he vacated the chief minister’s official residence at 5, Kalidas Marg in Lucknow after his defeat in the 2017 assembly elections, seers and priests had undertaken “purifying rituals” at the sprawling bungalow to make it ready for Yogi Adityanath.

    Yadav had also said that he would get the fire brigade to spray ‘Gangajal’ on it after returning to power in 2022.

  • Ours was first political party to organise meeting of intellectuals in 1997: Samajwadi Party leader

    By PTI

    BAHRAICH (UTTAR PRADESH): A Samajwadi Party leader on Wednesday claimed that the SP was the first political party to organise a meeting of intellectuals 24 years ago. Almost all parties are organising ‘prabudh varg sammelans’ as part of their Brahmin outreach programme before the coming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

    “Some people are claiming to be flag bearers of the enlightened classes. Perhaps, they do not know that ‘prabudh sammelans’ were started way back in 1997 by the socialists from Rae Bareli and addressed by the then defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and senior leader Janeshwar Misra,” SP state president Prabudh Sabha, Manoj Pandey, told PTI here.

    Pandey, who attended the party’s ‘prabudh varg sammelan’ in Mahsi on Tuesday, said after its beginning in 1997, the second phase of these conferences was organised by the SP in November 2018, the third phase in 2020 and now the fourth phase has been started in 2021.

    Without taking names, he attacked the BSP and the BJP, who are also organising similar conferences in the state, and said that they are remembering the Brahmins only now.

    Pandey said that through these conferences his party is going among intellectuals and Brahmins who gave a right direction to the country as litterateurs, poets, scientists and also as freedom fighters. “We have come out to seek their support. We are happy that people in large numbers are turning up for these meetings and this is an indication of the things to come in the state,” he said

    Led by its national general secretary and Brahmin face, Satish Chandra Misra, the BSP had organised a series of similar conferences all over the state. The ruling BJP is also holding ‘prabudh varg sammelans’ in the state.

  • Samajwadi Party to contest 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in alliance with RLD, regional parties: Akhilesh Yadav

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and some smaller parties will contest the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls together, and an announcement in this regard would be made soon, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday.

    He said besides the RLD, talks have reached the final stage with the Mahan Dal and Dr Sanjay Chauhan’s outfit.

    Yadav said the “cleanup” of the BJP will begin from western Uttar Pradesh and the saffron party will be wiped out by the time it reaches Ballia (in eastern Uttar Pradesh).

    He also confirmed the SP’s alliance with his uncle Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia).

    The SP chief was speaking at a media event here.

    Yadav has already declared that his party will have no tie-up with bigger parties like the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and would rather prefer smaller regional parties as partners in the crucial election.

    Asked about the chance of any tie-up with the AIMIM, he did not show any inclination.

    Speaking at the conclave of News 24 immediately after Yadav, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at the SP and the BSP for taking 75 per cent Muslim votes by raking up the fear of the BJP but doing nothing to uplift their living standards.

    In a scathing attack, the Hyderabad MP said prominent non-BJP parties are racing with the saffron party to prove themselves to be a greater champion of the Hindutva cause and charged these parties with promoting majoritarianism in the country.

    “Days are not far when India will have majoritarianism as State policy like Israel,” Owaisi, who has announced that the AIMIM will contest 100 seats in the Uttar Pradesh polls, said.

    He trashed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s claim of no riots in Uttar Pradesh during his rule of four-and-a-half years.

    The 2019 NCRB report says 5,819 communal fights took place in the state, Owaisi said, asserting that it is official data and could be verified.

    He alleged that since the BJP has nothing to show in the Uttar Pradesh polls, Adityanath and others are using words like “abbajaan” and “chachajaan” as part of “divisive” politics.

    He said such like expressions are part of “dog-whistle politics”.

    On the attack at his residence in Delhi on Tuesday, Owaisi said the incident happened at a short distance from a police station and it shows the efforts to “silence” the minority community.

    He also used the incident, in which some right-wing activists have been arrested, to dispel the charge that the “AIMIM plays a friendly match with the BJP in polls”.

    Owaisi alleged that Muslims are being targeted in Uttar Pradesh and reeled out figures that among those killed in police encounters in the state, 37 per cent were from the minority community.

    Yadav said if voted to power, the SP will not implement the “black farm laws” in Uttar Pradesh and will improve the “mandi” system in the state.

    He asserted that in the upcoming polls, Uttar Pradesh will get a new government and that the people of the state want “progressive politics”.

    Hitting out at the state government for the poor law-and-order situation, Yadav said Uttar Pradesh tops in terms of custodial deaths, the NHRC has served maximum notices to the state and a fugitive IPS officer is yet to be caught.

    Taking a dig at the BJP, he said, “The double-engine government is colliding with each other.”

    Asked to comment on his strategy in the upcoming polls as compared to the 2012 election, the SP chief said he believes in the English phrase, “strike the iron when it is hot”.

    He also said the BJP’s strength is its publicity of lies.

    To a question on comparing the organisational strength of the BJP and the SP, Yadav said his party had defeated the ruling party candidates from the parliamentary constituencies earlier represented by the chief minister (Gorakhpur) and deputy chief minister (Phoolpur) in 2018.

    On being asked whether he would be able to match the BJP’s money power in the polls, Yadav said, “A cycle (SP’s poll symbol) does not need diesel or petrol.”

    Earlier, national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Rakesh Tikait claimed that the BJP will not get more than 140 seats in the Uttar Pradesh polls.

    Tikait also said he has no faith in EVMs, adding, “We will not contest any polls.”

    He praised former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and said the credit for land acquisition goes to him.

    “Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave office in the middle of his term and become the president. Yogiji must be promoted and he should become the prime minister,” Tikait said sarcastically.

    To a question, he said, “Is the BJP the custodian of the Har Har Mahadev slogan? We are Raghuvanshis and Ayodhya is our place of birth.”

    BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Misra termed the BJP as “enemy number one” because it has “completely ruined the state”.

    To a question, he said the elephant (BSP’s poll symbol) is the friend of the public.

    Misra’s comments came a day after Adityanath said the ration meant for the common man were gobbled by the “elephant” when the BSP was in power in Uttar Pradesh.

    Misra dismissed any possibility of a poll alliance with the SP.

    To a question on whether the BSP will support the BJP in case of a hung Assembly, he said, “No support will be extended to the BJP at any cost.”

  • Enforcement Directorate to interrogate Azam Khan, others in money laundering cases

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) will interrogate three jailed politicians in Uttar Pradesh including Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in alleged money laundering cases.

    Besides Khan, the agency will interrogate BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari and former MP Atiq Ahmad.

    All three politicians are currently lodged in different jails in Uttar Pradesh. ED has got permission from courts for custodial interrogation of these politicians.

    Azam Khan is currently lodged in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur jail and facing several cases. Ansari is lodged in the Banda district jail while Atiq is in Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad.

    Notably, the Rampur district administration took back more than 70.05 hectares of land from Mohammad Ali Jauhar University run by Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar Trust headed by Samajwadi party MP Azam Khan last week. 

  • 2022 UP polls: Political parties scramble to win over Dalits through outreach programmes

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Caste will play a major role in the 2022 UP assembly elections. This is manifested by the fact that players in the UP political landscape are scrambling to woo voters by organising conclaves focussed on specific castes.

    While BSP has just done with the Brahmin sammelans to revive its Brahmin-Dalit formula of social engineering through which it had come to power in 2007, both Samajwadi Party (SP) and ruling BJP are making efforts to win over Dalits by organising outreach programmes this weekend.

    While SP has announced a special 15-day programme commencing Sunday in rural areas, the BJP has planned the national executive meeting of its SC wings for two days starting Saturday in Varanasi, PM Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency.

    With an intent to be back in the saddle in Lucknow in 2022, the SP is holding various caste oriented outreach programmes. The party’s Brahmin outreach programme with “prabudh varg sammelans” and “Shiv sewak sammelan” is already underway. Now it is widening its campaigns through Samajwadi Lohia Vahini which has been entrusted with  organising “gaon-gaon Dalit samwad (Dalit discourse across villages).” The campaign would conclude on December 5, said the party’s official spokesman Rajendra Chaudhury.

    “The intent is to expose BJP government’s anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-Dalit, anti-backward, anti-reservation policies and to take the socialist ideology, actions and policies forward among the people,” SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said.

    Lohia Vahini state president Ram Karan Nirmal will take charge of the programme to be held in Kanpur, Auraiya, Kannauj, Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, Etawah, Firozabad, Agra and Mathura.

    ALSO READ | Beware of BJP’s ‘e-Ravans’ on social media who’ll spread lies ahead of UP polls: Akhilesh to SP workers

    According to Chaudhary, the seven-phase programme will start from Allahabad, and its last phase will be in Lucknow on December 5.

    The ruling saffron brigade’s  national executive meeting of its SC wings was inaugurated by party national president JP Nadda through a video link. The meeting will conclude on Sunday in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Varanasi.

    According to a senior BJP leader, the discussion in the meeting would focus on the achievements of the state government and various schemes introduced for those belonging to the Scheduled Caste.

    Calling it a routine meeting held every three months, the BJP leader claimed that the party would go among the SCs to make them aware of the schemes meant for them and at the same time put the problems faced by them on the party table.

    The BJP sources claimed that the occasion would be used to strategise the upcoming election in five states and the guidelines will be issued for the same in the meeting.

    The prominent among the possible participants of the two-day confabulations include BJP General Secretary CT Ravi, MP Vinod Sarkar, party’s SC wing president Lal Singh Arya, minister Virendra Singh, 70 state executive general secretaries, national secretary presidents of the states’ SC wing and other MPs and ministers.

  • Temple, holiday in Samajwadi Party’s outreach to Vishwakarmas in UP

    By Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Claiming that by pruning Vishwakarma Puja off the list of state holidays, the state government had insulted the eponymous community, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said he would build a grand temple to honour the deity on the bank of river Gomti. 

    The Vishwakarma community outreach is seen as part of the SP’s overdrive to cobble together an Opposition of small regional and community-based outfits to take on the BJP’s electoral machine in the 2022 Assembly polls.

    Akhilesh slammed the ruling BJP for insulting the Vishwakarma community by dropping Vishwakarma Jayanti holiday and said he would restore it if his party came to power. He was addressing a gathering during a Vishwakarma Jayanti programme organised by the All India Vishwakarma Mahasabha at the SP office in Lucknow.

    After assuming charge, CM Yogi Adityanath had shortened the list of state holidays. Among the holidays dropped was the Vishwakarma Jayanti. Adityanath had said schools and offices should be opened on those days and programmes should be organised to make people aware of the contributions made by those personalities.

    “There is also a training institute for the BJP and it teaches them to spread lies. By dropping Vishwakarma Jayanti holiday, the CM has insulted the Vishwakarma community. It was our SP government that had announced a holiday on Vishwakarma Puja. Hanuman’s mace and Krishna’s wheel were made by Vishwakarma community…,” said Akhilesh.

    Later, the SP chief attacked the government for failing to mitigate the rain situation. “There was heavy damage to property and loss of life. The government has not made any arrangements. This government is about to leave, it will be wiped out. Every section of the society has been humiliated by this government. It has made a record of lies,” Akhilesh said.

  • Beware of BJP’s ‘e-Ravans’ on social media who’ll spread lies ahead of UP polls: Akhilesh to SP workers

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday cautioned his party workers against the BJP’s “e-Ravans” on social media, saying the saffron party will use them to spread lies in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

    Yadav was speaking at an event organised at the SP headquarters here to celebrate Vishwakarma Jayanti.

    “The BJP will tell God knows how many big and small lies in the Uttar Pradesh elections.

    ‘e-Ravans’ with training and money are sitting on social media, they will work to mislead the public.

    We have to be careful,” the SP president said.

    The coming elections in Uttar Pradesh will be the biggest in the country and will also be a test of democracy.

    The BJP is a party that spreads lies and confusion, hatches conspiracies and all need to beware of it, he said.

    Hitting out at the BJP-led government over its handling of the COVID-19 crisis, Yadav alleged that during the pandemic, workers and labourers were forced to go home on foot as bus and train services were suspended.

    However, flights continued for the rich people.

    “The public was left orphaned, dead bodies were found on the banks of the Ganga river and their pictures were published all over (the world),” he said.

    The SP president promised to include suggestions of the Vishwakarma community in his party’s manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due early next year.

    After coming to power, the SP will declare a public holiday on Vishwakarma Jayanti, Yadav said.

    He also promised to build a grand Vishwakarma temple on the banks of the Gomti river if his party is voted to power.

    Under the BJP government, Yadav alleged, people from all sections of society, including those from the Vishwakarma community, have been humiliated.

    He also reiterated the SP’s demand for a caste-based census in the country.

    “We want a caste census so that the exact number of people from every section of society is known. Only then each section’s participation can be decided. The BJP wants to snatch the rights of the backward communities, the poor and the downtrodden,” he said.

  • Akhilesh promises to restore Vishwakarma Puja holiday, a temple for deity if voted to power

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With the 2022 UP Assembly elections inching closer, political parties have started wooing the voters through various promises. The latest is the Samajwadi Party (SP) which promised a grand temple of Vishwakarma on the banks of the Gomti river if voted to power in 2022.

    Slamming the ruling BJP for insulting the entire Vishwakarma community by withdrawing the Vishwakarma Jayanti holiday, SP national president Akhilesh Yadav announced that his party would restore the holiday on Vishwakarma Puja if it came to power in UP.

    Akhilesh was speaking at a Vishwakarma Jayanti programme organised by the All India Vishwakarma Mahasabha at the SP office in Lucknow on Thursday.

    It may be recalled that after assuming charge in UP, Yogi Adityanath had shortened the list of state holidays including the Vishwakarma Jayanti. He had said that schools and offices should be opened on those days and programmes should be organised to make people aware of the contributions made by those personalities.

    “There is also a training institute for BJP people and it teaches them to spread lies. The chief minister did away with the Vishwakarma Jayanti holiday, he has insulted the entire Vishwakarma society. It was our SP government that announced a holiday on Vishwakarma Puja. Hanuman’s mace (gada) and Krishna’s wheel were made by Vishwakarma community…,” said Akhilesh.

    However, attacking the BJP on the incessant rains lashing the state for the last two days, the SP chief said: “There was heavy damage and loss of life due to rain in Uttar Pradesh. The government has not made any arrangements. This government is about to leave, it will be wiped out. Every section of society has been humiliated by this government. This government has made a record of lies.”

    Further attacking the BJP government, Akhilesh said, “The government is only busy changing the names. Where did the dream of a USD 5 trillion economy go? The chief minister had talked about the target of a USD 1 trillion economy, where is it? Big MoUs were signed in Lucknow.”

    He launched a broadside on BJP government over its Covid management saying countless had died of corona in Uttar Pradesh, there was no oxygen and no beds in the hospitals. “The ambulance started by the SP government came in handy during the corona period. Lockdown was imposed in such a way that many poor people lost their lives. The government did not impose lockdown at the right time. Corpses were flowing in Ganga,” said the SP chief

    The SP chief reiterated the alleged misuse of EVMs in Bihar assembly elections and accused the administrative machinery to have played to the diktats of the ruling dispensation.

    He cautioned his workers to be alert against the alleged misuse of EVMS in UP elections saying the BJP had its “e-Ravans” sitting on social media and people will have to be aware of dirty tricks ahead of the 2022 UP polls.

  • ‘Those who used to hold iftars, now visiting temples’: Uttar Pradesh dy CM targets Samajwadi Party

    By PTI

    HARDOI (UTTAR PRADESH): In a barb directed at the Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Thursday said those who used to hold iftar parties during their regime are visiting temples now.

    His statement comes days after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s controversial ‘abba jaan’ remarks, also apparently targeting the SP and the Muslim community.

    In the fresh BJP attack on Akhilesh Yadav and his Samajwadi Party, Maurya said Thursday, “When there was his government in the state, he used to hold Roza-Iftar parties. When there was Kumbh during his regime, he did not go there to take a bath. But after the formation of the BJP government, he is visiting temples. This is an ideological victory of the BJP.”

    Maurya was here to lay the foundation stone and inaugurate schemes worth over Rs 1,372 crores. He also announced schemes worth Rs 300 crores for the district. “The same Akhilesh who used to turn his face after seeing Hindus has to take a dip in Haridwar and touch the feet of saints. Now he is declaring himself to be a Ram bhakt and Krishna bhakt,” he added.

    In Kushinagar on Saturday, Adityanath had remarkedpeople who say “abba jaan” used to digest all the ration earlier.

    While SP chief Yadav had hit back at Adityanath, saying the statements betrayed the “sanskar (values)” of the chief minister, Union minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani defended the his constitutional right to put forward his views.

    The deputy chief minister Thursday also said that in the 2022 assembly polls, the BJP will get over 300 seats.

    On Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s promise of providing 300 units free electricity if his party wins the polls in Uttar Pradesh, Maurya said the AAP is running the Delhi government like a Nagar Nigam. “They (AAP) will not get candidates for all the seats and will not be able to win a single seat in UP. In such a scenario, he is making promises only,” he added.

    He said law and order situation under the BJP regime has improved and bulldozers are running on illegal properties earned through ill-gotten money.