BSP facilitated its win in two Lok Sabha bypolls in UP

After its new found bonhomie with the BSP facilitated its win in two Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh recently, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav unveiled a statue of Dr Ambedkar on the occasion of his 127th birth anniversary at the state SP office in Lucknow on Saturday. Akhilesh later said that `Samajwadis’ have always followed the path shown by Dr Ambedkar. 

Since its inception in 1992, the Samajwadi Party has been confined to celebrating anniversaries of Socialist ideologues like Ram Manohar Lohia and Janeshwar Misra, but this year, the party brass instructed all district units to celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti at district headquarters or any public place to mark the occasion.

After paying tributes to the Dalit icon, Akhilesh chose to attack the Yogi government and termed the Unnao gang rape incident as a `slap on its face’’. He also demanded a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the rape victim. 

“Absolute anarchy prevails in the state. The Unnao gang rape incident has only battered the tall claims made by the Chief Minister on improving law and order in the last one year. I am confident that the people will show the door to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as they have failed to perform even basic duties of a government,’’ said the SP chief.

Training his guns at Yogi over the Unnao incident, Akhilesh said, “The CM was protecting the rape accused for the last one year. The incident has also exposed the role of Principal Secretary (Home) and DGP. I am sure the CBI probe will bring out the truth behind the heinous crime.’’ 

“The government has been boasting encounter figures but the reality is out in the open after the Unnao case. The government should not shield culprits and take strict action against those who were shielding them. The High Court had to intervene in the Unnao matter which is a big embarrassment for any government,” said the former Chief Minister.

“The crime graph is soaring high in the state since the BJP came to power. Be it Unnao or Kathua, wherever the BJP is ruling, the crime graph has headed north along with atrocities against Dalits and poor,” he further said.

Akhilesh also declared that the Unnao unit of the SP would help the victim’s family financially and demanded a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the victim from the state government.

Meanwhile, SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said, ``It’s unfair to suggest that we are celebrating Ambedkar Jayanti for the first time. We have always paid tributes to the icon on his birth and death anniversaries as we hold him in high esteem.” A senior SP leader said that the party would try to dispel doubts in the minds, if any, that its ideology was at variance with that of the BSP and reach out to all sections.

“Before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Ambedkar Jayanti will give a chance to increase interaction and co-ordination between cadres of both parties and develop better understanding,” the SP leader said.