Akhilesh hits back at UP CM for targeting Samajwadi Party over Ansal Group issue

Lucknow: "If everything was wrong, why did you go there for the inauguration instead of sending a bulldozer," asked Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath slammed the party for "favouring" real estate developer Ansal Group during its rule.

The Uttar Pradesh Police Tuesday booked the embattled Ansal Group for alleged cheating, breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and organised crime. The action was taken after Chief Minister Adityanath instructed officials to take strict measures and safeguard homebuyers' interests.

During a discussion on the Budget in the state assembly on Tuesday, Adityanath said, "Ansal was your (SP's) creation. It was under your government that all its illegal activities were facilitated, deceiving investors and homebuyers." Reacting to the accusation, Akhilesh Yadav questioned the government's stance on investments while highlighting that the same leaders who are now raising allegations had earlier inaugurated projects in the same place.

In a post on X, the SP chief said, "To hide their own failures, some people take others' names but forget that they themselves inaugurated malls and hospitals in the same scheme. They also hosted G20 delegates in a newly built hotel within the same grand complex, which received genuine investments worth billions." Yadav also posted a video purportedly showing Adityanath inaugurating Lulu Mall in Ansal's Golf City. A G20 event was held at a hotel in the Golf City and a cancer hospital is also situated there.

He slammed the BJP government for "discouraging" investors by making such accusations and said that such actions would neither boost investment nor help in the state's progress.

"If everything was wrong, why did you go there with scissors for the inauguration instead of sending a bulldozer?" Yadav posed.

Taking a jibe at the ruling party, the former chief minister alleged that talks of their potential ouster from power were frustrating its leaders.

True success makes a leader calm and composed while failure manifests as visible desperation, the Samajwadi Party chief said.