Opposition V-P pick Sudershan Reddy arrives in Lucknow, to meet Congress and SP leaders
Reddy was welcomed at the Lucknow airport by a large gathering of SP and Congress leaders
3 min read
Justice (retired) B Sudershan Reddy with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)Justice (retired) B Sudershan Reddy, the Opposition India bloc’s Vice-Presidential candidate, arrived in Lucknow on Tuesday to launch his campaign and interact with MPs and MLAs of the Samajwadi Party (SP) as well as the Congress.
The former Supreme Court judge will meet the leaders separately at their respective party officers and later at a joint lunch.
The election is slated for September 9.
Reddy was welcomed at the Lucknow airport by a large gathering of SP and Congress leaders, led by Congress State President Ajay Rai and SP State President Shyam Lal Pal.
Amid chants of “Zindabad, Zindabad”, both SP and Congress workers garlanded him — some were seen touching his feet. Reddy said that he was happy to come to Lucknow for the campaign.
Reddy first went to the Congress headquarters to interact with party MLAs, MPs, and leaders. He was scheduled to stay at the Congress office for about 45 minutes and would then leave for the SP office to meet party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Party leaders informed that Reddy would address a press conference with Akhilesh and later host a joint lunch for the MLAs and MPs of both SP and Congress in Lucknow.
Asked about the BJP’s claims against him, Reddy said that there are no allegations against him and that his campaign is going on very well.
Justice Reddy came under criticism from senior BJP leaders in the last few days as he was part of the two-judge Bench that in 2011 disbanded the anti-Maoist Salwa Judum militia in Chhattisgarh. Last Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that “Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020” had Justice Reddy not given the verdict.
In an interview, as reported by The Indian Express, the former judge denied the allegations, saying the State has the right to combat violence but “cannot infringe upon fundamental rights”.
Asked if he was surprised that the Home Minister was raising these issues, he had responded: “Yes. I was a little bit surprised. The mighty Home Minister, the most powerful Home Minister of this country, is raising this issue after 14 years. And it never occurred to him when they were fighting this menace that this judgment was the root cause or was coming in their way and tying their hands in dealing with them.”
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