Drama unfolds over JP bust in Lucknow

After authorities advised him not to visit the JP International Centre here citing security concerns, a defiant SP chief Akhilesh Yadav Friday garlanded a bust of Jayaprakash Narayan mounted atop a vehicle outside his residence where hundreds of party workers had gathered.

- LUCKNOW

JP, as the late socialist ideologue and fierce critic of the Emergency was known, has emerged as the latest centre of the tussle between the ruling BJP and the opposition party. Friday was the late socialist leader's birth anniversary.

For the second year in a row, the streets of Lucknow witnessed political drama. JPNIC was among the pet projects of the Akhilesh Yadav government but is now being probed by the BJP government over alleged financial irregularities. Yadav also appealed to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to withdraw support to the NDA, saying the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh stopped 'Samajwadis' from paying tributes to Narayan and asserting that the JD(U) chief owes his political emergence to the JP movement.