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‘Not for BJP leaders?’ asks Akhilesh Yadav as airport official cites high air traffic behind chopper delay
“People told me that BJP leaders had taken off before me. I was told about air traffic, but no air traffic for BJP leaders who had taken off? They didn't have to wait while I had to wait for over 2 hours,” Akhilesh Yadav said.
After Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged on Friday that his helicopter was stopped at Delhi airport for no reason, the Delhi airport official said that high air traffic and refuelling time were behind the delay.
Initially the delay was due to air traffic and then the helicopter also needed to refuel, the official said, according to news reports. “Akhilesh Yadav's chopper was not granted permission by Air Traffic Control (ATC) to fly initially because of high air traffic. After the clearance was given, the chopper had less fuel. After refuelling, the chopper flew to the destined place,” news agency ANI quoted a Delhi airport official as saying.
However, the SP leader seemed unconvinced by the response and said that some BJP leaders had taken off before him. He asked if the high air traffic was not applicable for them, in his retort.
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“People told me that BJP leaders had taken off before me. I was told about air traffic, but no air traffic for BJP leaders who had taken off? They didn't have to wait while I had to wait for over 2 hours,” he said. “No matter what BJP does, people of UP will remove them,” he added.
The incident comes ahead of the tightly contested state assembly elections in UP and Yadav said that he was hoping that the Election Commission of India (ECI) would look into the chopper delay incident.
“I was in the chopper for over 2 hours. I am hoping that EC looks into it. If someone has to go for a rally, how will they work if their chopper is stopped for so long. Seems like BJP will do anything before polls,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Yadav had alleged that his helicopter was being stopped at the Delhi airport for no apparent reasons. He had earlier arrived at Delhi via a commercial flight from Lucknow and was scheduled to hold a joint press briefing with Jayant Choudhary, leader of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) party, in Muzaffarnagar in UTtar Pradesh.
While alleging that the incident was a “conspiracy” by the BJP, which he said would lose the upcoming state assembly elections in UP, he also said that a “top BJP leader” had then flown from Delhi and he was being delayed.
"My helicopter is still detained in Delhi without assigning any reason and is not being allowed to go to Muzaffarnagar. While a top BJP leader has just flown from here. This is a desperate conspiracy of the losing BJP. People are understanding everything,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
“Abuse of power is a sign of the people losing… This day will also be recorded in the history of socialist struggle! We are going to take a historic flight of victory,” he then said in a subsequent tweet.
(With ANI inputs)
