From SP family 'Mahabharat' to Mathura violence and Bulandshahar gang-rape

A bitter turf war within India’s biggest political family, one of the worst train mishaps claiming over 150 lives and violence in Mathura that saw 32 people, including the police, killed in clashes, kept Uttar Pradesh in the news in 2016.

The shocking gang-rape of a minor and her mother on a busy highway in Bulandshahar, use of abusive words by a senior BJP leader against BSP supremo Mayawati and stampede during a religious congregation in Varanasi also hit the headlines across the country in the year gone by.

The political scene in UP, where Assembly polls are due early next year, was dominated by a bitter power struggle between Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and the latter’s uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav.

After remaining in the shadows of the ‘chachas’ (uncles), Akhilesh finally asserted his authority as the polls neared and sacked Shivpal, a senior minister, and his two supporters from the Cabinet after he was also removed from the post of president of the state unit of the party.

The supporters of the two leaders battled on the streets and traded charges and counter-charges in public. As Akhilesh and Shivpal’s rivalry threatened to split the party, Mulayam stepped in and brokered a fragile truce, though differences continue to simmer.

The state was shaken by a violent clash at Mathura between the police and members of a cult in which 32 people, including a senior cop, were killed. The cult members had illegally occupied a park in the heart of the town and had refused to vacate it. It was alleged that cult leader Ram Briksha Yadav enjoyed political patronage and the ruling SP came in for widespread criticism from the Opposition parties.

The UP government, however, dismissed the claim and said that a few families had migrated for business and other purposes. Around the same time, senior BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh embarrassed his party by using abusive language against Mayawati, triggering a sharp reaction from her supporters and others. Singh was arrested and suspended from the party.

Shame in Bulandshahar

The gang-rape of a minor and her mother on a busy highway in Bulandshahar in July shocked the country. The accused had also robbed the family after taking them to a field.

Senior minister Azam Khan, who termed the incident a “political conspiracy”, was forced to tender an unconditional apology in Supreme Court. The year also saw a stampede in Varanasi during a religious congregation in which 32 people were killed and many others injured.

In another significant development, the Allahabad High Court termed ‘triple talaq’ (a Muslim man divorcing his wife by pronouncing the word talaq thrice in one go) as “cruelty’’.

Also, one of the worst train mishaps occurred near Pukhrayan in Kanpur Dehat district.

As many as 150 people were killed and over 200 others injured, when Patna bound Indore-Rajendra Nagar Express train derailed near Pukhrayan railway station on a cold and foggy morning.