Akhilesh gifts UP 39th public holiday today — on birth annivs of Patel, Narendra Dev

The decision on Patel Jayanti comes days after Bundelkhand’s slain dacoit Dadua’s brother and ruling party’s former MP Bal Kumar Patel and his son, Ram Singh, who is a party MLA from Patti (Pratapgarh), met Akhilesh with a request in this regard. Placing the demand, Ram Singh had told the CM that “SP has always honoured great personalities” and “Sardar Patel’s contribution towards freedom struggle” cannot be ignored.

For Acharya Narendra Dev, no formal demand was made but ruling party MLC Yashwant Singh had put up several hoardings inviting all to pay tributes to the socialist leader at a function organised in the state capital on Saturday.

Declaring a public holiday to woo a particular community has remained a big tool in the hands of the successive governments in UP. Akhilesh had first declared a holiday on December 6 ? the death anniversary of Bhim Rao Ambedkar, which was seen as an attempt to appease Dalits, the traditional vote bank of Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party. Ironically, Akhilesh had earlier scrapped the same decision that was taken by Mayawati, who was his predecessor.
He later declared holidays on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar (April 17), Maharishi Kashyap and Maharishi Nishadraj Jayanti (April 5), Hazrat Ajmeri Garib Nawaj Urs (April 26), Maharana Pratap Jayanti (May 9). June 24 was also declared as public holiday to mark socialist leader and former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur’s birth anniversary.

The previous BSP government had declared three public holidays —- one each to mark the birth (March 9) and death (October 9) anniversaries of party founder Kanshiram and the death anniversary (December 6) of B R Ambedkar.

Most such holidays were declared after a demand was put forward by the specific community to honour their luminaries. The SP’s most backward class
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