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The Jayaprakash Narayan International Convention Centre in Lucknow that has been under construction for the past seven years has again emerged as a flashpoint between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government.
On Friday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was stopped by government officials citing “security reasons” as he along with his supporters went to garland a statue of Narayan in the centre to mark the socialist icon’s birth anniversary that was on October 8 (Tuesday). Last year too, there was a row when Akhilesh and his supporters were stopped from entering the premises. After that, they scaled the gate and entered the centre to garland the statue.
Spread over 18 acres adjacent to the Ram Manohar Lohia Park in Lucknow, the convention centre was envisioned on the lines of the India Habitat Centre in Delhi. It was to have a gym, a luxury hotel, and a sports complex apart from a museum on JP’s life and ideology.
While the work on the project began in 2013 under the SP’s regime, only a portion of the work could be completed before the 2017 Assembly polls, which saw the BJP come to power. On October 11, 2016, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav inaugurated a part of the project.
Sources said the estimated cost of the project in March 2013 was Rs 265 crore but escalated to about Rs 800 crore in 2017. Though the SP claimed that 80% of the project’s work was completed by the time Akhilesh demitted office, allegations of inflated costs stalled the project under BJP rule.
In 2022, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) that served as the nodal agency for the project attempted to revive it, urging the government to bring in private players to complete the centre. However, government officials pointed out alleged anomalies during the previous government’s tenure, leading Akhilesh to allege that the project was not being completed due to the BJP’s “political vendetta”.
SP insiders said Akhilesh had used the incident to send out multiple messages. While he has targeted the BJP for preventing him from paying tributes to a “socialist leader”, he was also seen taking a jibe at JD(U) leader and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for backing a party that “did not support socialist icons” despite being a product of the socialist movement. The SP chief also emphasised JP’s anti-Emergency movement against the Congress government of Indira Gandhi.
The party claimed that Mulayam had inaugurated a portion of the project, the JP Narayan Interpretation Centre, in 2016 and that it is referred to as the “museum of socialism”.
“Akhilesh ji is the face of the socialist movement, especially at a time when the country is seeing attacks on the Constitution like in the 1970s. Other parties, be it the Congress or the BJP, did not give socialist leaders their due place and may have forgotten socialist ideology but he is keeping them alive,” said an SP leader.
The Congress, though said to be upset with Akhilesh for invoking Emergency, has taken a wait-and-watch approach.
“The SP speaks and acts differently. Firstly, they went on to declare six of the 10 candidates for the upcoming Assembly bypolls without taking us into confidence. Now, they are offering a dialogue on the remaining four seats, of which one is clearly theirs. Akhilesh then went on to highlight the JP movement during the Emergency. These are pressure tactics. Let us wait and watch,” a Congress leader said.
Adityanath, while condemning the SP’s act, took to X to pay tribute to Narayan. “During the Emergency, he (Narayan) made an unforgettable contribution in restoring democracy by awakening the consciousness of the nation,” he said drawing a stinging reaction from Akhilesh, who accused the BJP of “creating obstacles” in the SP’s efforts to build memorials in honour of “Lok Nayak”, as Narayan is known.
BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi termed the project “a symbol of corruption” and accused Akhilesh of “using it for cheap publicity”. “He (Akhilesh) has long forgotten the ideology of JP and hence he has aligned with the Congress, against which the socialist leader launched a movement,” he said on Saturday.
