Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged that his and other leaders’ phones had been tapped by the Uttar Pradesh government and that Chief Minister Adityanath listens to the recordings of their conversations every evening.
“People related to the Samajwadi party are under surveillance,” Yadav said. “If you are contacting us you are also under the radar.”
Yadav made the comments a day after the Income Tax department officials searched the homes of Samajwadi Party’s National Secretary Rajeev Rai, Private Secretary Jainendra Yadav and another leader Manoj Yadav.
The raids took place ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which are scheduled early next year.
On Sunday, Yadav said that the raids were an indication that the Bharatiya Janata Party was going to lose the Assembly election. He added he was expecting inquiries by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation soon.
Opposition parties have often accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of using central agencies to target their leaders.
Yadav on Sunday also said that one could not expect much from an “unupyogi [useless] government”.
By calling the Uttar Pradesh government useless, Yadav drew on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “upyogi [useful]” moniker that he gave to the Adityanath government on Saturday while addressing a rally in Shahjahanpur, the Hindustan Times reported. Modi had said that UP and yogi, a title used by Adityanath, together made an “upyogi government”.
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party chief also asked why Union minister Ajay Mishra, whose son Ashish Mishra has been arrested in the Lakhimpur Kheri case, was not resigning from his post.
The Opposition parties have scaled up their demand for Ajay Mishra’s resignation after a Special Investigation Team on Tuesday said that the killing of farmers was planned.
Ashish Mishra had been arrested on October 9 in connection with the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people, including four farmers, were killed on October 3 during a protest against the three agricultural laws.
Also read:
Lakhimpur Kheri: UP Police say that killing of farmers was planned
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