Samajwadi Party’s rebel MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav on  Thursday attended the marathon  36-hour special session of Uttar Pradesh Assembly to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and showered praise on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath,  saying “Yogi is an honest chief minister”.

The Samajwadi Party has boycotted the special session of UP legislature and has already filed a petition with the Assembly Speaker seeking disqualification of Shivpal Singh Yadav from the membership of the House.

Hariom Yadav, another SP MLA, also attended the special session on Thursday.

Shivpal Yadav termed the special session as “historic” and lauded the Chief Minister and Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit for organising the session to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

“The leadership of UP is in honest hands who respects the people and their representatives. Same cannot be said about the IAS and IPS officers who have become power unto themselves and do not answer the phone calls of MLAs. The police officers are indulging in corrupt practices with impunity,” Shivpal Yadav said and added, “If the Chief Minister orders a probe, he will have first hand knowledge of the situation in districts.”

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was present in the House.

“I admire Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the UP Investors’ Summit which has attracted the much needed investments in the state that will go a long way in overall image makeover of UP and ensure jobs for the youth’,” said Shivpal Yadav, who has floated his political outfit Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia)’

The PSPL leader also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching welfare schemes for the poor.

“The Ujjawala scheme   under which free LPG connections have been given has immensely helped the women but the refill cost is high,” he said while also mentioning the PM Awas Yojana under which free houses have been given to 25 lakh poor families and free toilets to 2.61 crore in UP.

The House burst into laughter when Shivpal said, “The toilets are fit only for children, they are too small for elderly people most of whom face knee problem.”

Though appreciating most of the welfare schemes launched by the National Democratic Alliance government, Shivpal Yadav criticised the high-handedness and corruption in police department in Etawah, Firozabad and Mainpuri districts. He also criticised the erratic power supply in several districts.