UP minister says no change in corruption in the state, threatens to resign

In a huge embarrassment to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, one of his alliance partners threatened to walk out of the government, after publicly criticising his style of functioning and saying that there had not been any change in ''corruption'' in the state even after the change of guard.
 
Suheldev Bharat Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar, who was a cabinet minister in the Yogi government, said that the state government had not been able to wipe out corruption from the bureaucracy.
 
''The state government has not taken any action against corrupt officials...the bureaucrats do not even listen to the ministers,'' Rajbhar said.
 
He said that the people of the state had expected that things would change in the state after the change of guard. ''Unfortunately nothing has changed,'' he remarked.
 
Rajbhar was said to be upset after his demand for removal of the district magistrate of Ghazipur was not conceded by the government. The SBSP president had alleged that the DM was ''corrupt'' and had been working as an ''agent'' of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
 
''The DM says that no one can remove him....he does not listen to the public representatives,'' Rajbhar said adding that his party would stage a ''dharna'' in Ghazipur to press its demand for his removal.
 
Rajbhar also threatened to resign and walk out of the alliance if his demand was not conceded. He said that he had apprised the BJP national president Amit Shah about the matter.
 
SBSP, which has four seats in the state assembly, had contested the polls in alliance with the BJP. It is essentially a caste based outfit and wield considerable influence over 'Rajbhars' (a backward caste), who constituted around 4 % of the total electorate and were mainly concentrated in eastern UP districts of Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Ballia, Jaunpur and few others.