Ex-SP allies question Ram Gopal's meeting with Yogi

Lucknow, Aug 3 Samajwadi Party MP Prof Ram Gopal Yadav's meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday has led to a huge controversy with former allies of SP demanding an explanation.

Shivpal Yadav, the estranged uncle of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and president of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL), said that Prof Ram Gopal Yadav was taking up the cause of only a select few.

Prof Yadav had reportedly met the chief minister to draw his attention to false cases being heaped on the SP leaders and workers, particularly the backwards and Muslims.

"Why did the SP leaders not take up the issue when cases were being filed against Mohd Azam Khan, Nahid Hasan, Shahzil Islam and other party workers. Fight for justice is only for a select few?" Shivpal Yadav said on Wednesday.

In the two-page letter that Prof Ram Gopal Yadav gave to the chief minister, he has mentioned how former SP MLA Rameshwar Yadav, his brothers and their families are 'being targeted by the Etah police' after criminal cases were lodged against them during the recent elections.

The letter cites specific instances in detail on how police demolished commercial premises and brick kilns owned by the family and how even the women members were arrested and sent to jail.

Deepak Mishra, the chief national spokesperson of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) said, "The problem is not that the SP leadership met the chief minister to seek help to Etah leaders, the problem is that they publicly claimed that they went to draw the Yogi Adityanath's attention towards backwards and Muslims. The letter does not talk of any other backward or Muslim except for one family in Etah."

While Azam Khan spent over two years in jail with nearly 100 criminal cases lodged against him and his family, Nahid Hasan was arrested in the midst of 2022 polls despite being a party candidate.

A sitting SP MLA Shehzil Islam recently made headlines when police demolished a gas station that he owned, claiming that it was built on encroached land.

Meanwhile, some other former allies of SP have also questioned the purpose of the meeting.

Arun Rajbhar, national general secretary of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), said, "Is there any deal being worked out? People in the country are scared of the ED and CBI inquiries these days in the country. Hope, the meeting was not meant to get bailed out of any such thing."

Keshav Dev Maurya of Mahaan Dal said, "Hope nothing big is cooking up."

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