Temple Trust members must resign amid allegations: Akhilesh

Yadav questioned chief minister Yogi Adityanath how the land prices had changed so much within minutes

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday demanded that members of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerath Kshetra Trust overseeing Ram temple’s construction should resign in the wake of the allegations the Trust faced over a land deal in Ayodhya.

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“After the (2019) Supreme Court judgment on Ayodhya, the entire country agreed that the Ram Temple of Ram Lalla (infant Ram) will come up there. And now...reports have surfaced that corruption has happened...first of all, all the Trust members must resign until the allegations are there. If the work is going on in the name of ...Ram... (if) the question mark has been put on those Trust members who have to do everything, then they should resign,” he told a TV news channel.

Former Samajwadi Party MLA from Ayodhya Tej Narayan Pandey aka Pawan Pandey and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had on Sunday accused the Trust of purchasing the land, which was bought for ₹2 crore just 10 minutes before, for ₹18.5 crore on March 18 this year.

Yadav questioned chief minister Yogi Adityanath as to how the land prices changed so much within minutes. “If corruption can happen in the land for Ram Temple, where else it might not have happened,” he asked. The Trust on Monday said the land was purchased at rates lower than market prices while refuting the allegations of corruption and dismissing demands for a probe into the land deal.

“Now, they (the Trust members and BJP leaders) are saying that the land was purchased according to the circle rate or market rate. In that case, I would like to ask them that there is a village Dharampur in Ayodhya from where many farmers came and met me complaining that the government was not offering them suitable prices in lieu of acquiring their land,” Akhilesh said.

“Ayodhya airport has to come up there. The farmers are willing to sell their land at appropriate rates. I had asked the government to give them money six times the circle rate in lieu of their land. But the government, which is paying good rates to the farmers of a neighbouring village, is not giving similar prices to farmers of this (Dharampur) village. What kind of policy is this? No one wants to stop development,” he added.

Akhilesh also asked what officers were doing when the prices of the land that the Trust purchased went so high within moments. “We are not the only ones who are putting a question mark on this (land deal), people are also questioning as to what was happening,” he said.

Akhilesh hints at alliance with Shivpal’s party

Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday hinted at the possibility of an alliance with his uncle Shivpal Yadav and his Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia.

Responding to his party’s resolve to contest the 2022 UP Assembly polls by allying only with the small parties and not tying up with any big parties, Akhilesh on the issue of Shivpal said, “Samajwadi Party will not field any candidate on Chacha’s (Shivpal is Akhilesh’s uncle) seat--Jaswant Nagar.”

He added, “The time will tell if an alliance with his party (PSP-L) will happen and how.”

Shivpal for last two years had been repeatedly saying that he was looking for an alliance with the SP.

Akhilesh said that his Samajwadi Party along with small allies will win 350 seats in 2022 UP Assembly polls.