Ramgopal, Jaya fail to find time for work Mulayam Singh gave

As per Mulayam’s directives, these MPs had to visit their allotted districts soon after the winter session of Parliament got over and submit their report directly to him within one month. The Parliament session got over on December 23 and the deadline for submitting report expired on January 25.

[related-post]

Ramgopal, who is also a cousin to Mulayam and claims to carry the burden of maintaining discipline in the party by publicly reprimanding SP leaders, failed to visit even once the Kanpur division that was allotted to him. Though he visited Lucknow several times and held meetings with ministers of Akhilesh Yadav’s government, he never went to the neighbouring district.

“We have received information about Ramgopal being appointed as observer, but there is no intimation about his arrival so far,” Om Prakash Mishra, district president, SP’s Kanpur unit told The Indian Express. Ramgopal, who was in Lucknow to attend a family wedding Tuesday, refused to comment stating that there was no important issue to discuss.

However, he interacted with several ministers, including Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, Parasnath Yadav, MLAs Raju Yadav and Shadab Fatima and MPs Neeraj Shekhar and Naresh Agarwal at Lucknow’s VVIP Guesthouse Tuesday.

Jaya Bachchan, who mostly remains aloof from party activities, was given the responsibility of strengthening the party in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi. However, she has not yet visited the district in the past one month.  “I have not received any programme of Jaya Bachchan. Perhaps, earlier it was due to cold weather conditions that she did not come here,” Satish Yadav, district unit president of SP in Varanasi said.

Party’s national vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda, however, reached Azamgarh for the meeting on Tuesday while Naresh Agarwal informed that he will visit Bareilly on February 13. “I will be in Bareilly division for three days and I am not aware about any deadline,” Agarwal said.
Another MP Alok Kumar Tiwari is visiting Gorakhpur Wednesday while Darshan Singh Yadav had postponed his visit to Allahabad due to Magh Mela.

Those who have already visited their allotted districts include Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Ravi Prakash Verma, Neeraj Shekhar, Munawwar Saleem, Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Kanaklata Singh, Arvind Kumar Singh, Azam Khan’s wife Tazeen Fatima and Javed Ali Khan.

Kejriwal finds an ally in SP

Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday found an unlikely supporter in Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav who claimed the AAP chief will win the Delhi polls and BJP was worried about the party’s popularity and making allegations on its funds. “BJP is worried because of the popularity of Arvind Kejriwal this is why (it is) making such allegations (on its funds). He (Kejriwal) will win Delhi elections,” SP National General Secretary Yadav said here. AAP Volunteer Action Manch, a breakaway group of the AAP, had Monday accused the Kejriwal-led party of receiving Rs 2 crore last year through four “dubious” companies. The AAP has rejected the charges and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored SIT to probe into funding of all three major parties in Delhi polls.      PTI