Coming down hard on the forceful collection of money for Mayawati’s birthday celebrations, Yadav said Manoj Kumar Gupta, executive engineer of the Public Works department, had fallen prey to the malicious intentions of BSP leaders.

Addressing a gathering at Purana Numaish Maidan at Auraiya, Yadav said: “The entire state administrative machinery along with BSP leaders are busy extorting money from the people to celebrate Mayawati’s birthday.”

Citing a few examples, the former chief minister said that similar instances of forceful collection of funds have also been reported from other parts of the state.

“In Auraiya, the situation has become extreme as a BSP legislator stooped to the level of murdering an executive engineer because he failed to hand over the amount demanded,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Yadav and SP general secretary Amar Singh met Gupta’s family at Lakhimpur Khiri. Yadav said the family’s denial to accept the ex-gratia amount announced by the state government is like a slap on the face of BSP.

The SP chief was surprised to see that despite the involvement of BSP members in Gupta’s murder, the local police was targeting SP workers. “After arresting several party workers for their involvement after Gupta’s murder, now the Auraiya police have targeted our former legislator, Kamlesh Pathak,” he said.

At the gathering, Amar Singh accused Mayawati of adopting dual standards. “Mayawati on the one hand promotes criminals in her party, and when a crime is committed by a BSP leader, she terms it as a conspiracy against her by the other political parties,” he said.

Singh pointed out that by giving party tickets to D P Yadav from Badaun and Arun Shankar Shukla alias Anna Maharaj from Unnao for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati has yet again proved that she had no problem in fielding candidates with a criminal background.

“In the Gupta murder case, she has issued three contradictory statements in a single day but did not admit that it was a failure on her part,” he said.

“On her birthday, we will hold protests and demonstration in different parts of the state to oppose the collection of funds for the celebrations,” Singh added.

Yadav also used the platform to highlight the increasing differences between the SP and Congress.

“We did not support UPA government because of the Congress, but we did it in the larger interest of the country and the people,” he said.

“The nuclear deal will help the country develop immensely. Hence, we supported the UPA government.”

State Congress to launch helpline for complaints against extortion cases

The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) is getting ready to confront the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) over the death of Public Works department engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta in Auraiya.

Though senior Congress leaders in Delhi have made it clear that Gupta’s death will not be made into a political issue, UPCC is finding it difficult to avoid the incident. Soon after visiting the family of the deceased engineer in Lakhimpur Khiri, Ranjit Singh Judev — Congress leader in the legislative council — said the party will launch a helpline in the state, where people can register their complaints regarding cases of extortion. On Saturday, Samajwadi Party had also announced its decision to launch a similar helpline. Judev added the party is preparing a list of all such BSP candidates, who have had criminal cases registered against them.

“Anyone who is a victim of this business of donation, promoted by the BSP, can register their complaints. It is evident that everything is taking place under the guidance of Mayawati,” he said.