SP acting under BJP pressure in nominating LOP: RLD

LUCKNOW: The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) today charged the Samajwadi Party with acting under pressure from the BJP to deny senior leader Azam Khan the post of Leader of the Opposition in Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

"The SP acted under pressure from the BJP to deny the post of LOP to a dynamic and strong leader like Azam Khan who could have posed problems for them in the legislature," RLD state unit chief Masood Ahmed said here.

The RLD has just one MLA in the 403-member Assembly.


"Had Azam Khan been made the Leader of the Opposition, he could have retained his government bungalow and there would also have been no question on his Maulana Ali Jauhar University in Rampur and so the BJP put pressure on Netaji (Mulayam Singh) to stop it," Masood said.

Accusing the SP of writing the script of the BJP's ascent, he said that in the future, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who has already been branded anti-Muslims by his father, might also develop a liking for the BJP.

"The first move of the Yogi Adityanath government was action against the Gomti river front project which was carried out by the department headed by uncle Shivpal which would have pleased Akhilesh," he said, adding Shivpal was also the choice of Mulayam Singh Yadav for the post of LOP but Akhilesh chose to reject it.

Akhilesh was today unanimously elected Leader of the SP Legislature Party in both the Houses of the Legislature at a meeting of party legislators where party veterans Azam Khan and Shivpal Singh Yadav were conspicous by their absence.