Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said that he hoped that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would learn the lesson of affection and love from Taj Mahal during his visit to Agra.
Akhilesh also stepped up political campaign for his defence after teams of Central Bureau Investigation raided several locations in the state for probing a mining scam and indicated that it would probe the role of the SP chief as he was the Chief Minister of UP when the scam took place.
“Hope the PM returns from Taj Mahal after imbibing affection and love from it” Akhilesh tweeted hours before Modi’s visit to Agra where the Prime Minister is scheduled to launch several development projects of road widening, rail over bridge, drainage and sewage, drinking water, defence corridor and health sector worth Rs 3,000 crore.
The SP chief also said that he hoped that Modi would remember the pain of farmers growing potato, sugarcane and wheat in nearby areas.
“UP was never so far from Delhi that the country’s chief executive was unaware of the plight of farmers and traders,” he said.
Agra in the Brij region is the potato belt of Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party launched a hoarding war against the possible interrogation of party chief Akhilesh Yadav by the CBI in the mining scam.
A hoarding with photos of Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, put up in front of the SP state office said, ‘Satya pareshan ho sakata hai, parajit nahin’ (truth can be harassed, it cannot be defeated) The hoarding also carried the photos of Ram Manohar Lohia and Dr BR Ambedkar.
Posters depicting the SP chief saying, ‘Hamare pass gathbandhan hai, BJP ke pass CBI’ (We have the alliance, BJP has CBI), also dotted several sites around the SP state office.
The SP-BSP gave a joint statement against the BJP indicating to jointly fight the investigations by the CBI after the agency conducted raids early this month.
BSP chief Mayawati had spoken to Akhilesh over phone, assuring of her support and asking him not to worry about the CBI raids.
Both parties are likely to announce their pre-poll alliance for Lok Sabha polls on January 15, the birthday of Mayawati and Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav.
Sources in the Samajwadi Party said that Akhilesh told party leaders that he was prepared to face any eventuality. “The SP chief enjoys a clean image and if he is summoned and harassed by the CBI, we are prepared to face the situation and exploit it to our benefit ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections. We stand to lose nothing,” said a senior Samajwadi Party leader.
Officially, the party and Akhilesh Yadav have termed the CBI raid as acts of vendetta, deliberated at the instance of its political masters to malign him.
The SP has also alleged that the CBI was let loose against the party leaders after the news of alliance between the SP and BSP and seat sharing among the two appeared in the media.
