Samajwadi Party workers on Monday afternoon committed a petty and illegal act at the Alambagh bus terminal in Lucknow. Hordes of SP workers arrived at the bus terminal and started distributing sweets to employees and visitors at the facility. They also put up a banner temporarily thanking SP leader and ex-CM Akhilesh Yadav for building the terminal and equipping it with the latest facilities. The party workers were surprisingly not accompanied by any prominent leader from SP but the plotting and planning part must have been done by them post the announcement of the bus terminal’s inauguration by incumbent UP government. SP workers apparently wanted to thank their own party leader for dreaming of a bus terminal and chose to thank him at the bus terminal rather than celebrating at their own office or Akhilesh Yadav’s new residence. The plan for the Alambagh bus terminal was launched in 2016 under Akhilesh Yadav led SP government, but the construction could only begin in 2017 following which a majority of the work was done under CM Yogi Adityanath led BJP since May 2014. The bus terminal was going to be formally inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday.
This illegal act must have been committed at the behest of leaders from SP who had urged and provided funds to carry slogans and sweets to the bus terminal. Workers of any party do not have the right to inaugurate a property constructed using taxpayers money, the government and its officials are the only ones who are entitled to inaugurate a project. A case must be registered against the workers who had committed this illegal act and they must be taken to task for this act. Nothing much can be expected from the workers workers of the SP. It is clear that this move was taken just to grab the news headlines and tried to snatch away the goodwill generated from the work done by CM Yogi Adityanath. Perhaps they wanted to take some attention away from the episode of vandalism and petty thievery committed at the behest of Akhilesh Yadav at his government allotted bungalow. Akhilesh Yadav is facing a lot of flak for vandalism committed at his bungalow, he has allegedly done everything from removing taps to cycling tracks and gym from his government bungalow which he was asked to vacate by the incumbent CM Yogi government.
Only the SP workers can be counted upon to believe that such an act can bring accolades to their party and its leaders. Slogans of “Akhilesh Yadav Zindabad” which were raised on Monday by the assembled workers failed to convince the common public. The Alambagh bus terminal project might have been a dream project of Akhilesh Yadav and SP but it would have remained a dream had BJP not formed government in UP in 2017. Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) also confirmed that the project had been launched in 2016 but the work had started only in 2017. CM Yogi led BJP had come to power in May 2017 and it’s completion in 2018 means that the majority portion of the work was done under CM Yogi and not under Akhilesh Yadav as his supporters claimed. If there is any credit which needs to be shared by CM Yogi with Akhilesh Yadav then it would be of having a dream project. The credit for the completion of Rs 240 crore project which has a bus station, washing line for buses and a shopping mall with indoor food courts and other amenities goes entirely to CM Yogi, his ministers and other officers of the state government.