Barricades have been set up at the residence of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and at the Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre (JPNIC) late on Thursday evening. The administration put up aluminium sheets at the entrance of the JPNIC after Yadav made it known that he intends to visit the centre on Friday.
Yadav wants to pay tribute to Narayan as October 11 is his birth anniversary.
On Thursday night, Yadav visited the JPNIC where 'Samajwadi Party zindabad' had been scrawled in red paint on the sheets on the gate. He said that the government should throw open the gates or let the people know what it was trying to hide. "Are they planning to sell off the land? We will see how that is done", he said.
The JPNIC building is still incomplete and no construction is going on at present.
At the time of the filing of this report, hordes of Samajwadi Party workers had gathered at Yadav’s residence- some wearing chains symbolic of how the ruling party was shackling democracy.
There is a strong posse of police stationed at the JPNIC where Samajwadi Party workers are also gathering.
#WATCH | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh: A Samajwadi Party worker ties himself up in chains and protests outside the residence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
— ANI (@ANI) October 11, 2024
Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to visit JPNIC in Gomti Nagar today, on the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan. Police… pic.twitter.com/CvoZ72gWFX
On Thursday night, Yadav did not disclose whether or not he would go to the JPNIC on Friday. There is no official word from the party on the issue.
Meanwhile, SP MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav who was in Etawah from where he left for Lucknow in the morning was detained at Kannauj and asked to return.
He had earlier taken to X to say that the BJP was so intoxicated by power that it was attempting to blockade democracy. "Take lessons from history…dictatorship does not last for long in a democracy", he posted.
In 2023 too, the government had locked the gate of the JPNIC in an attempt to stop Yadav from entering the premises. He had then leaped over the gate and garlanded the bust of the socialist ideologue.
