Uttar Pradesh government moves to withdraw 8 political cases against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government kicked up a political storm on Wednesday by initiating the withdrawal of 20,000 ‘political cases,’ including eight against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. One of these cases relates to breach of prohibitory orders in 1995. In this matter even a non-bailable warrant was issued against him when he was the Gorakhpur MP.

According to sources, Governor Ram Naik okayed the withdrawal based on recommendations sent by the ruling BJP in the state. The cases to be withdrawn include one against Union Minister of Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla. Chief Minister Adityanath had announced on the floor of the House, during the winter session, that his government would withdraw all such cases which were slapped by predecessor governments against “political opponents and innocent people”.

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Samajwadi Party leaders have lashed out at the decision. Spokesman of the party Naved Siddiqui told reporters that the decision has proved that the ruling BJP has nothing to do with the people and was only concerned about “white washing its own wrong doings”.Congress’ Akhilesh Pratap Singh said that since the Supreme Court was soon to hear cases against tainted politicians, the BJP government in the state was trying to shrug off the taint by withdrawing cases against its leaders, including that against the Chief Minister.

Congress legislator Deepak Singh accused the state government of double speak. “On one side they were introducing UPCOCA-like legislations and on other they are allowing their own Chief Minister to go scot free in serious cases,” he said in a statement released by the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. The SP government under its previous tenure had also withdrawn 1,800-plus cases.