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Don’t raise ‘Ramcharitmanas’ issue in UP budget session: Shivpal to SP legislators
Returning to party office after six years, SP national general secy Shivpal Singh Yadav ‘presides’ over SPLP meeting
Giving strict instructions to party legislators, Samajwadi Party (SP) national general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav has directed them “to not raise the issue of ‘Ramcharitmanas’ on their own” in either houses of the UP legislature. The state legislature’s budget session is beginning on Monday.
The political circles in the state were in for a surprise when not only Shivpal stepped into the party’s state headquarters after six years but he also ‘presided’ over the meeting of the Samajwadi Party Legislative Party (SPLP) on Sunday. Shivpal and Akhilesh had parted ways politically in 2017 and reunited in December last year ahead of the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll.
Shivpal ‘chaired’ the meeting in the absence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav who was reportedly away. Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya, who had kicked up a row over ‘Ramcharitmanas’ last month, was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting.
“Don’t raise any religious issues in the session and focus on cornering the government on political and public issues”, said Shivpal Yadav according to an SP leader present at the meeting. It has already been indicated that now Shivpal Yadav will sit in the first row with Akhilesh Yadav who is also the leader of opposition in UP Assembly.
“Reach Vidhan Sabha at 9am before the budget session begins. Then hold a dharna on public and political issues at Chaudhary Charan Singh’s statue outside the legislature building. If police try to stop you on the way, sit on a dharna right there at the spot. Thereafter, as the session begins, all will attend. No one will issue any statement on ‘Ramcharitmanas’,” Shivpal said.
It was decided in the meeting that none of the party MLAs or MLCs will speak against any caste or religion. Party’s state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary, however, said: “He (Shivpal Singh) addressed the legislators.” Party MLA Ravidas Mehrotra said Shivpal enthused the party legislators ahead of the budget session. He said the party MLAs will not only hold a dharna outside the legislature building but also during the joint session of both the houses of the legislature.
Governor Anandiben Patel is scheduled to address the joint session of the state legislature. Addressing the party legislators, Shivpal also claimed that the party will win more and more seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections while alleging that the BJP government had failed on all fronts and the SP was on the surge.
Ahead of the budget session, all ‘Ramcharitmanas’ and ‘Shudra’ posters and banners have been removed from near the SP office. On January 22, Swami Prasad Maurya had alleged that certain verses of the Hindu epic ‘insulted’ a large section of the society on the basis of caste and gender. He had demanded that “either the verses be deleted from the epic or the entire book be banned by the government.”
