Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of getting his telephones tapped and listening to the conversations every evening.
Interacting with reporters a day after some SP leaders’ offices and residences were raided by the Income Tax Department, Mr. Yadav claimed the BJP was wary of its impending defeat in the upcoming assembly polls.
The BJP government would be increasingly misusing various enforcement agencies to persecute his party's leaders in the coming days, he alleged.
“All our telephonic conversations have been heard. This '’nupyogi’ Chief Minister himself listens to the recordings of some people every evening,” the Samajwadi Party chief alleged.
He also asked reporters to “remain alert, if you are speaking to me”. The Yogi Adityanath government is running a WhatsApp University in the State, Mr. Yadav said derisively.
The entire country knows that whenever the BJP is about to lose an election in any State, the “frequency of the misuse” of various enforcement agencies by the BJP rises, the former Chief Minister claimed.
“The BJP is following the Congress' way. Like the Congress, it is rearing to use the Central agencies to instil fear (in rival political parties),” Mr. Yadav said.
Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, when asked about the IT department raids against Samajwadi Party leaders, said, “I cannot comment on this, but the Government misuses the agencies. But, this was in my own case.” “This is the Government's way to harass the opposition leaders. They use agencies to do so. It's nothing new, we are seeing this for the past seven years.” About the phone tapping allegation, she said, “What is the job of a Government? To listen to the problems of the public, understand them and stop atrocities. Instead, this Government is tapping phones of the opposition.”
According to SP sources, the IT department searches were conducted on Saturday at the residences of party spokesperson Rajiv Rai in Mau, Jainendra Yadav, who was the OSD when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister, in Vinay Khand at Gomti Nagar in Lucknow, businessman Rahul Bhasin in Lucknow and of contractor Manoj Yadav in Mainpuri.
IT officials did not comment on the searches.
SP spokesperson Rajiv Rai has alleged that the searches were “politically motivated”.
Mr. Yadav said, “Seeing the atmosphere in the State, I can say the Yogi Government will not last. People have made up their minds for a 'yogya' (able) government. No government could be more 'unupyogi' (useless) than this. It has ruined Uttar Pradesh.”
He also claimed the recent visits of Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of the 12 BJP-ruled States to various places in Uttar Pradesh, including Varanasi and Ayodhya, was due to the saffron party's “fear of an impending defeat in the upcoming Assembly elections”.
