Shivpal being made scapegoat to save Akhilesh's image: Mayawati

Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday termed the ongoing power struggle in Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party as a drama scripted by its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav making his brother and Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav a scapegoat to save Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's image. Expressing sympathies with Shivpal Yadav, whose appointment as state Samajwadi Party (SP) chief last week triggered the crisis, she said that with nothing to show to the people in the last four and a half years of the party's rule, Mulayam Singh had played this card to deflect the attention of the people in the state. Mayawati, in a statement, also alleged that the state was witnessing 'jungle raj', there was no development and the people were tired of the 'goonda raj' (hooliganism) unleashed by SP workers. Referring to the stripping of portfolios from Shivpal Yadav by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and then giving them back, minus PWD, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief said this suggests that there was something amiss.

The Dalit leader also questioned the return of tainted Minister Gayatri Prajapati, wondering why he was being taken back into the government if he was corrupt.