Balram Yadav, who was sacked on Tuesday by Akhilesh Yadav, broke down and said that 'Samajwadi party is my life'. An angry UP chief minister axed a him from his cabinet for engineering the merger of a political party headed by a mafia.
"Meri zindagi hai Samajwadi party. Netaji mere adhyaksh hi nahi, balki mere pita hain, sanrakshak hain. Samajwadi Party, netaji (Mulayam Yadav) aur mere rishtey aparivartaniya hain (Samajwadi Party is my life and Mulayam Singh Yadav is not just the leader of my party but also a father figure to me. This relation cannot be changed," Balram Yadav said.
The minister Balram Yadav, one of the founding members of the Samajwadi Party and an influential leader of east UP, had managed the merger of the Qaumi Ekta Dal of mafia don Mukhtar Ansari who has been in jail for the murder of a BJP MLC.
The merger of the Qaumi Ekta Dal, ostensibly with an eye on the Muslim vote bank in east UP, was announced by Akhilesh’s uncle and senior cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav.
Akhilesh stayed away from the function where Mukhtar Ansari’s brothers Sibkatullah, an independent MLA, and Afzal Ansari, a former SP MP, were present.
Opposition parties were quick to pounce on the opportunity. “Who are they trying to fool?” asked BJP spokesperson Vijay Pathak, adding that joining hands with Mukhtar Ansari’s party clearly showed SP was willing to patronise criminals for petty vote bank politics.
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With inputs from dna's Deepak Gidwani.
