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Samajwadi Party chief attacks BJP govt over JPNIC lease, warns of probe if party wins polls
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on August 25 approved the Lucknow Development Authority’s proposal to hand over JPNIC to a private consortium, which placed the highest bid for a lease for its operation and maintenance
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The Jayaprakash Narayan International Centre (JPNIC), a sprawling convention complex in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar left locked for almost a decade, has once again become the centre of a political war of words in Uttar Pradesh.
Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday hit out at the BJP government in the state and Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) officials for the decision to lease the facility to private players, calling it a deliberate sell-off of a public asset created with taxpayers’ money. He dramatically offered to take over the centre for “one rupee extra.”
JPNIC has been one of the most prominent infrastructure projects associated with the previous Samajwadi Party government. The issue has come to the fore once again with assembly elections just six months away.
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on August 25 approved the Lucknow Development Authority’s proposal to hand over JPNIC to a private consortium, which placed the highest bid for a lease for its operation and maintenance.
According to the proposal approved by the cabinet, the consortium will pay ₹831 crore to the LDA for the 35-year lease. Speaking at a press conference at the party headquarters in Lucknow, Akhilesh Yadav alleged the BJP had “sold JP.”
He recalled that the foundation stone of the ambitious project was laid in the presence of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party founder), former Union minister George Fernandes and other senior leaders with the vision of creating a world-class public facility.
“It was built with public money and has now been given to big businessmen associated with the BJP,” he said.
“It was a signature building started during our regime, but the BJP, which has been in power for the last 10 years, deliberately kept ignoring it. The contractors received the full amount even before the work was completed,” he said.
The former chief minister trained his guns on LDA vice chairman Prathmesh Kumar, warning that the officer’s role would be investigated when the SP returned to power. He claimed the building—equipped with state-of-the-art museums, an Olympic-level heated indoor swimming pool, a helipad, an auditorium and vast parking—was leased at what he described as throwaway prices.
Estimating the built-up area at around 10 lakh square feet with a market value of nearly ₹6,000 crore, Akhilesh argued that parking alone could generate hundreds of crores over three decades, yet the entire complex had been handed over for roughly ₹831 crore.
“The CM levelled corruption charges on the JPNIC building at one time. If there was any corruption, what was the government doing for the last 10 years? These people make allegations so that they can sell these buildings to their own people,” Yadav said.
The JPNIC was conceived in 2013 as a flagship project of the Akhilesh Yadav government to honour the legacy of socialist icon Jayaprakash Narayan. After the BJP assumed office in 2017, construction was halted and an inquiry ordered into alleged financial and procedural irregularities. The incomplete complex remained shut for years. In October 2023, on JP’s birth anniversary, Akhilesh and his workers scaled the boundary wall after being denied entry to garland the statue inside.
Earlier, LDA officials clarified that the cabinet approval pertains to leasing out the JPNIC for its operation and maintenance, rather than an outright sale of the property. The land and the asset will remain under the authority’s ownership, while the selected bidder will be responsible for operating and maintaining the centre during the lease period in accordance with the terms and conditions of the tender.
