Akhilesh Yadav targets BJP on JP birth anniversary, asks Nitish Kumar to leave NDA | India News – Times of India

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav was stopped during his visit to the Jayaprakash Narayan International Center on Friday (JPNIC) in Lucknow for security reasons on the socialist ideologue’s birth anniversary, prompting the SP president to hurl a bust of the Loknayak (people’s hero) temporarily placed outside his house, amid a protest against the Bharatiya Janata government Party (BJP) of Uttar Pradesh.
Akhilesh was stopped after the government set up barricades near his house and deployed large police contingents. He told hundreds of SP workers that the BJP was against honoring heroes of the freedom struggle as its functionaries were not participating in the movement. He also urged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to withdraw support to the BJP-led NDA in Centre.
“Nitish himself is a product of his (JP’s) movement. This is the time for Nitish to withdraw support from the central government, which is not allowing the socialists to pay tribute to JP,” Akhilesh said after paying tribute to the makeshift bust of the central government. SP headquarters and placed on a mini truck.
The argument was reminiscent of a similar confrontation last year when Akhilesh had climbed the gate of JPNIC to decorate a statue of JP. JPNIC was conceived in 2012 by SP founder and Akhilesh’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav as a multi-purpose venue in the style of the India Habitat Center in New Delhi. Akhilesh was then the chief minister of UP.
The project in Lucknow’s Gomtinagar was halted in 2017 after BJP ousted SP and has been “under construction” ever since.
This time, a letter from the state-run Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) on Thursday “advised” Akhilesh not to visit JPNIC as there was a lot of construction material lying around. Due to the rainy season, there was also a possibility of wild creatures being present at the location and since Akhilesh has Z category security, it would not be advisable for him to visit the location, the letter said. LDA is the custodian of JPNIC.
At JPNIC, LDA had installed steel plates at the entrance to deny entry to anyone, possibly acting after Akhilesh visited the venue late on Thursday and stated that he would return on Friday to celebrate JP’s birth anniversary.
The JPNIC project, estimated at Rs 850 crore at the time, included an 11-storey structure with state-of-the-art auditoriums, a museum on the socialist movement in India, tennis and badminton courts and art galleries.
JPNIC was the only structure in Lucknow at that time with a helipad.