Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) State president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday took action against three errant MLAs of his party. MLA Mahendra Kumar Singh, alias Jheen Babu’s alleged night revelry in a Panaji dance bar cost him dearly as he was suspended from the party’s primary membership and a show cause was served on him. Two others — Ram Lal Akela, from Bachhrawan in Rae Bareli district, and Radhey Shyam Jaiswal from Sitapur Sadar — were suspended after being charged with indiscipline, amounting to tarnishing the party’s image.
The Chief Minister took a very serious view of incidents involving the MLAs and their kin. While Jheen Babu was punished for landing himself in jail after he and five others were caught in the company of bar girls in a hotel room in Panajion Monday night, Mr. Akela and Mr. Jaiswal were taken to task after the reported involvement of their sons, Vikrant Akela and Shailendra Jaiswal, in two separate incidents of highhandedness and violence. The Goa episode left the SP, already bedevilled by indiscipline and highhandedness of its MLAs and their relatives, red-faced.Jheen Babu is the son-in-law of veteran SP leader and the former Rajya Sabha MP, Bhagwati Singh, a loyal supporter of national party president Mulayam Singh. Mr. Babu, a four-time MLA, is on several committees of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. It is learnt that Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey has been informed by the Goa police about his arrest.
Mr. Babu’s arrest on Monday night was preceded by an incident in Rae Bareliin which about two dozen goons led by Vikrant Akela, Mr. Akela’s son, bulldozed the under-construction house of Rae Bareli’s Additional Chief Medical Officer, Naseer Ahmed, in the town’s Krantipur locality. The doctor alleged that Vikrant was demanding Rs. 20 lakh in connection with a dispute over the land’s ownership. A case was registered against Vikrant and 25 others. In another incident, Shailendra Jaiswal alias Babua, son of Radhey Shyam Jaiswal, allegedly opened fire on some persons over a land dispute along the Sitapur-Lucknow highway. One person, identified as Dharampal Yadav, sustained bullet wounds and was hospitalised.
