Three serving legislators of BJP in Uttar Pradesh have been served show-cause notices for multiple reasons, including anti-party activities and giving statements in violation of tradition and policies of the party. The three MLAs in the dock are Rakesh Rathore, Shyam Prakash and Suresh Tiwari.
Deoria MLA Suresh Tiwari was caught on camera warning people against buying vegetables from Muslims. He was speaking in his constituency in eastern UP, days after PM Modi spoke against communalising the pandemic. He was served a notice on Tuesday evening by UP BJP chief Swatantra Deo Singh.
A defiant Tiwari defended his outrageous comment, Did I say anything wrong? Speaking to media over the controversy, Tiwari claimed, I was interacting with people over the lockdown. People told me that Muslim vendors are selling vegetables after spitting on them.
So, I told them that I cannot do anything but they should avoid buying from these vendors to make sure that they don't get coronavirus. When people are asking such things, what to do? Why make it a big issue? Sitapur legislator Rathore was served notice last week after his purported audio conversation with different persons went viral.
In the clip, he allegedly criticised PM Modi by derisively dismissing his taali-thali beating event as beating a world record in foolishness; he further dubbed Yogi's regime as complete Ram Rajya and made critical remarks about works of both the governments amid the corona pandemic.
Both the mobile phones of Rathore were switched off. He was earlier with the Samajwadi Party and switched over to the BJP ahead of 2017 polls. Hardoi MLA Shyam Prakash has been asked to explain his conduct, a day after his letter went viral exposing corruption in purchase of medical equipment.
In his letter, Prakash sought refund of Rs25 lakh he had earlier given to the district administration from his MLA funds for purchase of medical equipment.
“I learnt about massive corruption in the purchase of these items through media reports. Hence, I want this money back, so that I can utilise the funds elsewhere.” Prakash told FPJ, “I wasn’t aware of the party ‘samvidhan’.
People like us who joined the BJP a few years ago were never given any training.” Prakash was in the Samajwadi Party earlier and joined the BJP just before 2017 Assembly polls.
Congress and Samajwadi Party hit back at the BJP saying that its own MLAs (Rathore and Prakash) are now exposing corruption and mocking at senior leaders.
Meanwhile, the Covid tally of Uttar Pradesh has crossed 2,000 with Agra posing a major challenge with 400 cases. Kanpur and Lucknow cities have also touched the 200-mark.