Withdraw support from NDA: Akhilesh to Nitish after denied entry to JP centre

“On the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan ji, we go to the JPNIC museum to celebrate. But I don’t know why this government stops us. This blockade by the BJP is not the first. It has blocked all good work,” Yadav said.

“Today, standing on the road, we are paying tributes to the ‘Jan Nayak’. This government wants to stop us from garlanding but we have done it here on the road itself,” he told the gathering.

“Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has an opportunity to withdraw support from a government which does not allow ‘samajwadis’ (socialists) to pay respects to JP on his anniversary and remember him. This government is insulting the socialists,” said Yadav, reminding the JD(U) chief (Kumar) that he owed his political emergence to the JP movement.

Claiming that he will enter the centre whenever the barricading is removed — whether it is done in a day, two or two years — the former chief minister said, “For how long will they keep barricades there? A day, a week, a year or two? After two years, they will have to put up a tin shed to save themselves…”

Yadav along with his supporters had reached the JPNIC on Thursday night and lambasted the Yogi Adityanath government for blocking its main gate with tin sheets apparently to prevent entry. “The people of BJP are destructive. Give them anything good and they will destroy it. They stopped us Samajwadi people in the past also but since this is the 9th day of Navratri, think about the ‘adharm’ they are doing on a day of the festival,” he said.

The former CM alleged that the memorial at JPNIC is under covers because of a “conspiracy to sell it”. “Imagine, there is a government which wants to sell a museum,” he said.

In the afternoon, he took to social media where he shared a 3.15 minutes-long video of JPNIC. “The socialists built memorials in honour of Loknayak, while the BJP only created obstacles. This is the difference between a positive and a negative mindset,” he posted along with the video.

Earlier, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) informed Yadav that his planned visit to the JP centre was “not advisable” as it cited security concerns due to the ongoing construction work at the site. In a letter referencing their correspondence dated October 8, the LDA noted that Yadav who is accorded Z-plus security intended to pay homage to the statue located at the convention centre.

— PTI inputs