Akhilesh Yadav jumps locked gates after denied permission to pay tributes to Jayaprakash Narayan in Lucknow

In a high drama event, former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, along with Samajwadi Party supporters scaled the locked main gate of Jayaprakash Narayan International Center (JPNIC) in Lucknow after he was denied permission to pay tributes on "security grounds".

The main gate of the JPNIC was locked and tin sheets were put up to prevent entry into the premises. The JPNIC complex was constructed by Akhilesh Yadav during his tenure as Chief Minister from 2012-17, but the building remains incomplete. Despite this, a statue of Jayaprakash Narayan has been installed inside the building, which Akhilesh garlands every year.



Akhilesh Yadav and his party workers entered the building by crossing the boundary and garlanded the statue of Jayaprakash Narayan. Akhilesh expressed his disappointment, stating that the government was suppressing the voice of socialists and not allowing him to honor the statue.

He said he had to resort to jumping over the wall to gain access, as he was stopped by the police deployed at the premises. The incident was captured in a video and shared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), where Akhilesh also alleged that arrangements were made to hinder his entry into the building.

"Will we have to call for a complete revolution like Jayaprakash Narayan-ji even for garlanding his bust? If that is acceptable to the BJP then so be it," Yadav said in a post on social media platform 'X'.

Akhilesh opened the JPNIC on October 11, 2016, when he was the chief minister. Following the BJP's victory in 2017, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office was told to order a "special audit" of the money spent on building the JPNIC and two other projects that Akhilesh, who was in charge of the housing department, had personally overseen.