New Delhi, December 28
The political war for Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday saw the BJP top brass—Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and party chief JP Nadda—take on Akhilesh Yadav over alleged links with Kanpur chemical manufacturer Piyush Jain from whose properties officials have allegedly seized huge amounts of currency notes, gold, and silver, charges that were scoffed off by the Samajwadi Party chief.
Linking jailed trader Piyush Jain to the Samajwadi Party, PM Modi mocked Yadav for often complaining that the BJP is taking credit for his work.
“Now when suitcases full of cash are coming out one after another, will they take credit for that also? They have spread the ‘itr’ of corruption,” he said, referring to the ‘Samajwadi itr’, a perfume launched by Pushpraj Jain alias Pampi Jain a couple of days back
Modi inaugurated the Kanpur metro by taking a ride amid claims by the Samajwadi Party that the ambitious project was started by Akhilesh Yadav. Earlier, Yadav had also claimed that the Kashi Viswanath Dham Corridor project was started by him.
The Prime Minister said the people of Uttar Pradesh know the truth and are watching every incident minutely. “The people of Kanpur understand business and trade well. Before 2017, the perfume of corruption that they had sprinkled all over Uttar Pradesh is there for everyone to see.
“But now, they are sitting with their mouths shut. They are not coming forward to take credit for the mountain of currency notes seen by the entire country. This is their achievement and their reality,” he said.
Shah and Nadda too mounted scathing attacks against the BJP’s main rival from other locations in the poll-bound state.
Shah claimed that for the Samajwadi Party, ‘ABCD’ meant ‘A’ for ‘apradh’, ‘B’ for ‘bhai-bhatija’, ‘C’ for corruption and ‘D’ for ‘danga’. “The BJP has wiped off this ABCD. When Piyush Jain was raided, it was Akhilesh Yadav who felt uneasy, he said in Hardoi.
Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, retaliated, calling the raids a “sign of BJP’s weak position in UP”.
Denying any links with Piyush Jain, he mockingly said the BJP got “its own businessman” raided “by mistake”. He also said that call detail records of his phone will reveal the names of several BJP leaders who were in touch with him. “By mistake, the BJP got its own businessman raided. Instead of SP leader Pushpraj Jain, it got Piyush Jain raided,” Yadav said
He also claimed that Samajwadi Attar (perfume) was launched by SP MLC Pushpraj Jain and not Piyush Jain., “In a digital mistake, it got its own businessman raided,” he said.
Credit war
Earlier, Yadav had also claimed that the Sri Kashi Viswanath Corridor project was started by him.
Tweeting a picture from October 2016, the SP said the then CM Akhilesh Yadav laid the foundation stone of the project in presence of then Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and the then Kanpur BJP MP Murli Manohar Joshi.
Interestingly, even then there was a credit war with the BJP attributing the project to Joshi.
Meanwhile, the BJP hit back saying Yadav has a habit of laying claim over every project “The construction of the project started under the tenure of CM Yogi Adityanath on November 15, 2019, and the 9-km-long first leg of the project was completed in a record tenure,” it said.
