Yogi Must Resign: Akhilesh

Lucknow: Stung by the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's remarks on socialism, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav today demanded that Governor Ram Naik should sack Yogi Adityanath for his 'contemptuous" comments on the Constitution.

His demand came in the backdrop of Adityanath's remarks made in the Legislative Council yesterday against socialism, which the SP had demanded be expunged from the proceedings.

'There is a complete absence of moral and constitutional values which are expected from the BJP government... Immediate action should be taken against the person sitting on a constitutional post to save the sanctity of the Constitution," Yadav said, according to a party release. "The Governor should take cognisance of the insulting remarks made by the BJP against the Constitution and sack the chief minister as this is a very serious matter," the SP release, issued by SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary, said.

Earlier in the day, in a clear dig at the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's barb calling the SP-Bahujan Samaj Party bonhomie as "circus lions" in the Council yesterday, Yadav said even if it a circus lion, it will remain a lion. To a query on the UP government's move to introduce B R Ambedkar's middle name "Ramji" in all official references to him, Yadav, who was in Mainpuri to take part in a private function, asked the chief minister to read the Constitution.

"If he reads it , he will not tell the House (Legislative Council) that lions are hungry and that they are living on left overs of others...No matter how hungry, a lion will always remain as such," the SP chief remarked. 'If he reads the Preamble of the Constitution his anger over socialism will not be seen in the House,"Yadav said.

In his speech in the Council , the chief minister had ridiculed the new found SP-BSP bonhomie and said that some persons have become "circus lions", who are surviving on "left over" of others. Intervening in the budget discussion , Adityanath, without naming anyone, said, "Some persons have become circus lions, who do not hunt but survive on left over of others and remain glad as if it has got a prey. It will be good if, instead of becoming such type of lion, one trusts his self-respect."

PTI