Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on January 28 alleged a ploy by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after his chopper to western Uttar Pradesh was briefly "stopped" by the authorities.
The helicopter was to be taken by Yadav to travel from Delhi to west UP's Muzaffarnagar, where he was scheduled to address a joint press conference with ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
In a tweet in Hindi, the Samajwadi Party chief said his "helicopter has been stopped from flying without any specified reason". On the other hand, a "senior BJP leader" was allowed to fly, he alleged.
"This is the losing BJP's frustration," he quipped, adding that the public is aware of what is happening.
At the time of writing this report, Yadav's chopper had been allowed to take off from Delhi for Muzaffarnagar. The region goes to polls in the first phase of the high-stake assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, scheduled on February 10.
The BJP and SP-RLD alliance is locked up in a tight contest in west UP. The latter, according to experts, is hopeful of making gains against the backdrop of farmers' angst against the recently scrapped central farm laws.
The saffron party, which had clean-swept western UP in the parliamentary polls of 2014 and 2019, along with the assembly elections of 2017, has reportedly sent out feelers to the RLD camp.
"We wanted to welcome (RLD president) Jayant Chaudhary to our home, but he has chosen the wrong path. People of the Jat community will speak to him. Our door is always open for him," BJP MP Parvesh Verma said on January 26.
Chaudhary, who is the grandson of late former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, rebuffed the BJP's invite. "Don't invite me, ask the 700+ farmers' families whose homes you destroyed," he had tweeted.
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