Union Minister Piyush Goyal  |  Photo Credit: ANI
Lucknow: Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday hit out at former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh, contending that they had “created an environment of fear” in the state. Citing Union Minister SP Singh Baghel’s allegations of an attack against him by Samajwadi Party workers, the Minister of Commerce and Industry also said that the party had “showed their reality once again”.
Earlier today, Union Minister SP Singh Baghel (Yadav’s BJP rival in Karhal) had filed an FIR, alleging a ‘violent’ attack by Opposition workers and supporters. The incident had purportedly taken place on Tuesday night, with the lawmaker claiming that he had sustained injuries as his convoy was attacked “with illegal weapons” by around 20-25 people.
“I heard them saying that Minister (Baghel himself) should be killed here itself & let’s get his election done right now”, the Union Minister had said. The group, he added, had raised slogans of ‘Akhilesh Bhaiya Zindabad’.
“They showed their reality once again. I think Akhilesh Yadav is perturbed after SP Singh Baghel was fielded against him. He (Baghel) was attacked. Union Minister Anurag Thakur has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission about it,” Goyal said in Lucknow. Following the incident, Baghel has reportedly been provided ‘Z’ category security by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
“The mafia raj and criminal activities that Uttar Pradesh saw before 2017, it created an environment of fear. It never let UP become a developed state. It stayed a BIMARU state. People were subjected to atrocities, it was the calling card of Samajwadi Party,” Goyal alleged, echoing similar remarks made by Home Minister Amit Shah a day earlier.
“The elections of 2014, 2017, 2019 have been the ones that changed the fate of Uttar Pradesh. The casteist governments of bua-bhatija could not do any good to UP; the state came under the category of BIMARU state. The BJP government worked to bring about a change,” Shah had said during an address in Atrauli.