SP has institutionalised gangsterism in UP: Jaitley

Arun Jaitley

Lucknow, Feb 14 –Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday accused the Samajwadi Party (SP) of “institutionalising gangsterism” in Uttar Pradesh.

“It is a shame and an anarchic situation wherein traders are being shot in cold blood; a prominent doctor was murdered; a rape victim who accused a ruling party legislator is found dead,” he told the media here.

Jaitley, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, also took a dig at the Akhilesh Yadav government by saying that first it labelled some persons criminals and then embraced them by fielding them in elections.

The reference was apparently to tainted minister Gayatri Prajapati and many like him.

The Union Minister said the state government’s “ideological bankruptcy” could be gauged from the fact that the Chief Minister was seeking votes in the name of an incomplete 302-km road.

He was referring to the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, tom-tommed by the state government as a big achievement.

Jaitley said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre was, in comparison, constructing 10,000 km of roads every year.

He accused the ruling SP of entering into an “unholy alliance” with the Congress, a party which he said was always opposed by socialist formations in the country.

The motto of most of the parties has always been ‘Congress hatao, desh bachao’, Jaitley said and added that the “SP had given up its ideological standing by embracing a dynasty”.

“Parties and their ideologies may be subject to compromises and opportunism but they should well realise that people don’t change their views and keep a close eye on everything,” he said.

Claiming the BJP had done exceedingly well in the first phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh on February 11, he said his party will get a comfortable majority in the assembly.