Death of Yogi ‘lookalike’, SP star campaigner sparks row

Kanpur: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s so-called lookalike and star campaigner of Samajwadi Party, Suresh Thakur alias Yodha, died under mysterious circumstances on Thursday night. His wife alleged that he was beaten up by a couple of persons on July 28 and was not keeping well since then. He started throwing up late Thursday and was rushed to the Unnao district hospital where he died around midnight. The police, however, have denied the charge.Yodha was the star campaigner of SP national president Akhilesh Yadav. Yadav on Friday said that the “incident of lynching of Suresh Thakur, who made a distinct identity for himself as a SP campaigner, is extremely heart-wrenching”.While extending tribute, Yadav made an appeal to the government to ensure proper action against the culprits at the earliest.A native of Chaupai village under the Sohramau police station area of Unnao, he used to live with his wife Sarita. She alleged that on July 28, one Ramesh and Umesh of the village had assaulted her husband. He sustained serious wounds and succumbed later. Sarita also accused the police of taking the side of the accused.The Unnao police, meanwhile, in a communique released on its official Twitter handle stated that Yodha was taken to the district hospital due to sudden ill health, where the doctors declared him dead. The communique further stated that “the Sohramau police had immediately reached the spot, and after conducting preliminary investigations, sent the body for postmortem”.The police stated that prima facie, there is no injury mark on his body. The police also requested the people to not spread fake news on social media, like he was beaten to death, in this regard.Yodha first hit the headlines when he reached Lucknow to file his nomination for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Here he filed nomination from Maulik Adhikar Party. A resident of the Cantt area in Lucknow, he used to work as a pump operator at LDA’s memorial park.Yodha had again hogged limelight ahead of the 2022 UP’s Assembly elections, when a picture shared by Yadav’s official Twitter handle went viral on social media. Yadav was seen sitting with him clad in saffron outfit during air travel. Yodha had a striking resemblance to the CM. Healso went to Gorakhpur for election campaigning along with the SP chief.Meanwhile, SP sources said that the party has formed an investigation team to probe the matter. Releasing a letter, the party wrote, “A delegation has been formed to get correct information about the death of party worker Suresh under suspicious circumstances and to meet the bereaved family.”This has been done as per the instructions of Yadav. The seven-member delegation will go to Yodha’s village and will submit a detailed report of the cause of his death in the state office.
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