Din in House as SP slams govt over SIR, demolition in Kashi

Lucknow: The governor's address to the joint sitting of the UP Assembly on Monday was mired by din and pandemonium as Samajwadi Party members protested over bulldozer action as part of redevelopment work at Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi and special intensive revision (SIR) of voters' list by the Election Commission, among other issues.

The SP members carried placards and posters and wore T-shirts bearing pictures of Manikarnika ghat's demolition to register protest. They also trooped to the well of the House right in front of the Speaker's podium and indulged in sloganeering.


They shouted slogans like ‘Governor madam go back, go back' and ‘Governor's address is a bundle of lies'.

Interestingly, SP member Engineer Sachin Yadav wore a T-shirt over a ‘kurta' with Manikarnika Ghat demolition photograph printed on one side and picture of Malwa queen Ahilyabai Holkar on the other side. Sardhana MLA Atul Pradhan carried a big poster of Holkar.

Other members like Zahid Beg, Dr Ragini Sonker, Faheem, Pankaj Malik and others held placards and indulged in sloganeering.

When the House met at 11am and Speaker Satish Mahana invited the governor to read out the address, senior SP member Sangram Yadav raised the SIR issue.

Terming the governor's address as a "bundle of lies", SP members shouted slogans including "False speech will not be accepted".

Sloganeering by SP members continued till the conclusion of the address.

Amid slogans such as ‘Killer of Dalits and backwards' and ‘Anti-reservation govt will not be accepted', the governor completed her address, which lasted over 30 minutes.

Even though the speech was hardly audible amidst the chaos, the governor in her written address listed the achievements of the govt under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Ahead of the start of the session, SP MLAs held protests on the Assembly premises against the alleged anti-people policies of the govt.

SP national spokesperson and legislative council member Rajendra Chaudhary alleged that the govt had failed on all fronts. They also raised discrepancies in SIR of electoral rolls.