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UP monsoon session set to be stormy; Akhilesh likely to lead SP lawmakers’ march
Walk is the fallout of the foiling of SP legislators’ September 15 protest at Charan Singh’s statue outside the legislature building.
The state legislature’s Monsoon session to begin on Monday is likely to see a stormy prelude as the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav is expected to lead a walk of MLAs and MLCs to the legislature building from the party headquarters.
However, it remains to be seen if the walk—a first such by Akhilesh—can even take place with the police installing collapsible barricades at the juncture where Vikramaditya Marg and Mahatma Gandhi Marg meet.
As it is, the walk is the fallout of the foiling of SP legislators’ September 15 protest at Charan Singh’s statue outside the legislature building. Angered over the blocking of the protest during which the police had ‘house-arrested’ several legislators, SP chief whip Manoj Pandey had announced that evening that Akhilesh would be heading the party legislators’ walk to the session.
The distance between the SP state headquarters and the legislature building is just about 1.8 km.
Akhilesh, also the leader of opposition in the UP Assembly, over the last decade has taken part in several similar campaigns and protests—he campaigned on a mechanised rath, rode a bicycle for long and short distances and sat on dharna on roads and outside the legislature building. However, this will be the first time he walks to attend a legislature session.
“Akhilesh Yadav will lead the foot march of SP legislators, who will assemble at the party headquarters around 9 am before the march begins at 9.45 am. The walk will cover the Gandhi statue outside the GPO (General Post Office), Hazratganj crossing and then enter the Vidhan Sabha building from Gate No. 1 in front of the Lok Bhawan (the chief minister’s secretariat),” said SP chief spokesperson and national secretary Rajendra Chaudhary.
“The SP legislators will wave placards with slogans on unemployment, price rise, crime against women, poor law and order, bad condition of power supply, education and health services,” Chaudhary added.
On the eve of the Monsoon session, Akhilesh held a meeting of the party’s legislators and discussed the public issues the party would raise at the Houses.
“The BJP government in the state is working with vendetta while it has failed on all fronts. Murders, loots, rapes, abductions and such crimes have shaken up the entire state, but this government is totally insensitive and ineffective. The BJP government is working against the spirit of democracy and is involved in hate politics,” Chaudhary said.
