SP has planned a rally in Azamgarh tomorrow

| | Lucknow | in Lucknow

The Samajwadi Party has planned a rally in Azamgarh on Thursday to protest Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to lay the foundation stone of Purvanchal Expressway, claiming why should the PM go through with the proces when the foundation was already laid by the SP government during its tenure.

“The BJP government is bereft of ideas and therefore is either inaugurating or laying foundation of projects which were done during our regime,” SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said in a statement in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to lay the foundation stone of Purvanchal Expressway in Azamgarh on May 14. It happens to be the Parliamentary constituency of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav. 

The Samajwadi Party claimed that the foundation stone of the Expressway was laid on December 22, 2016 and also released pictures of the function which was attended by almost the entire cabinet of then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Akhilesh said that during SP regime, the proposed Purvanchal Expressway was from Lucknow to Ballia but this government curtailed it to Ghazipur. “In our regime the Expressway was to be constructed in six packages but the BJP first reduced its length and then to accommodate its people, broke it up into eight packages. Despite that, tenders were cancelled twice as the BJP government’s proposals lacked transparency,” the SP chief said.

Akhilesh even said that his government had acquired almost 50 per cent land for the proposed Expressway. “As we got support from masses, we named the project as Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway but the BJP regime dropped `Samajwadi’ from the name as it was allergic to the word,” he said.  

The hard hitting statement of Akhilesh Yadav came a day after he termed the BJP government a `kainchi ki sarkar’ which was busy in ribbon-cutting of projects initiated by the previous SP regime. Akhilesh made the statement on Monday when the Prime Minister along with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Korean Prime Minister inaugurated Samsung mobile manufacturing unit in Noida. 

“The priority of the BJP government has never been farmers and poor. It works for the welfare of corporate sector and this is reflected in its policies,” he said.