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On day of BSP rally, Akhilesh Yadav announces Kanshi Ram statue, park in Lucknow if SP voted to power
Akhilesh Yadav made the announcement as he attended a programme to mark Kanshi Ram’s 19th death anniversary at the SP office in Lucknow.
On a day on which Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati attacked the Samajwadi Party and thanked the BJP government for upkeep of memorials of Dalit icons, SP national president Akhilesh Yadav announced a park and statue of BSP founder Kanshi Ram would come up on the Gomti riverfront in Lucknow if his party forms the government in Uttar Pradesh in 2027.
He made the announcement as he attended a programme to mark Kanshi Ram’s 19th death anniversary at the SP office in Lucknow.
If Mayawati is praising the Bharatiya Janata Party, then it means there is some kind of internal collusion between her and the BJP, he said.
On Mayawati’s allegations, Yadav said, “The Samajwadi people, including Netaji (SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav) and Lohiaji have always stood for the oppressed. We all know that Kanshi Ramji won his election from Etawah and became an MP with the help of the Samajwadi Party.”
Addressing the rally on the 19th death anniversary of Kanshi Ram, Mayawati called the Samajwadi Party “two-faced” as she accused it of co-opting Dalit icons in its quest for power.
She also said the SP forgets the Dalits when it is in power, and remembers them only in need.
“When they are in power, they neither remember PDA, nor saints, gurus, and great personalities associated with it. But the moment they lose power, they suddenly start remembering our saints, gurus, and great men. People need to be very cautious of such double-faced individuals,” she said.
Mayawati further said, “We are grateful to the present government because unlike the Samajwadi Party government, the money collected from the people visiting this place (Kanshi Ram Memorial) has not been suppressed by the present BJP government.”
She also acknowledged the efforts taken for upkeep of the memorial.
Reacting to the BSP chief’s praise of the BJP government, Yadav said, “It means something is brewing in the background and there is an internal collusion. If anyone has installed statues of Kanshi Ramji, apart from her (Mayawati), then it is us. During the SP regime, we had instructed the LDA to maintain all the memorials. I saw date trees dying back then, so I ordered them to replace them with better ones. The colour of the stones, which have turned black, would have been intact if the BJP government had done proper maintenance.”
“When we form the government, we will get a statue of Kanshi Ramji installed on the riverfront and will also have a park in his name,” SP announced.
The former chief minister thanked SP MP from Mohanlalganj RK Chaudhary for organising the event.
“I want to thank MP RK Chaudhary for remembering honourable Kanshi Ramji today on his death anniversary,” the SP chief said.
Speaking on the recently issued National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, Yadav said, “The BJP wants to make a world record of fake cases. As per the NCRB data, crimes against women are the highest in Uttar Pradesh. The atrocities on Dalits are at its peak in the state under the BJP regime.”
On last month’s violence in Bareilly, the SP president said, “Whatever has happened in Bareilly is a failure of the administration. When there was an announcement beforehand, what was the administration doing? It was all deliberately done by the administration so that the BJP could take political mileage from it.”
He demanded that the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections be held in one phase. Yadav reiterated that his party will have city-specific local manifestos with an aim to boost urban infrastructure and businesses.
