Mayawati to Akhilesh Yadav: Don’t get rattled by the use of CBI

New Delhi: The political dynamics of the newly-firmed-up alli-ance between the Samaj-wadi Party and the Bahu-jan Samaj Party spilled over onto the national stage with both joining hands to condemn the possibility of Samajwadi president Akhilesh Yadav being questioned by the CBI, and BSP supremo Mayawati calling Mr Yadav to express solidarity.

However, differences surfaced among the Opposition parties on whether it was the misuse of the CBI that should be raised in Parliament in the remaining two days or the Congress’ pet issue of Rafale.

The ball was set rolling in the morning by none other than Ms Mayawati, who called up Mr Yadav and gave her full support to him, asking him not to be shaken by any gimmicks. “Do not be shaken by such gimmicks,” she told the SP chief while dubbing any move by the CBI to question him as “political animosity” of the ruling BJP, a BSP statement said.

The two parties later held a joint press conference at Parliament House, where senior SP leader and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav alleged that the CBI was being used by the Centre as the SP-BSP alliance has left the BJP shaken. “Since they have no other option, they have found an ally in the CBI,” he said.

“The Prime Minister has to leave his constituency in Varanasi and contest if such a connection is there between the CBI and the government,” he said.

Interestingly, in her statement, BSP chief Mayawati had also fired a politically-loaded salvo at the Congress, saying that “like the Congress, the BJP is misusing the government machinery to trap its opponents in false cases”.

The BSP and SP have refused to play second fiddle to the Congress as far as alliances go. Both in the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assembly polls, Ms Mayawati failed to reach a seat-sharing deal with the Congress, though later both parties unconditionally extended their support to the Congress governments. According to sources, the Congress has been left only two seats — the Gandhi family bastions of Rae Bareli and Amethi.

The Congress also reacted predictably to the newfound bonhomie between the two parties. Congress Rajya Sabha MP and Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad said the CBI was being misused to settle political scores, his party continued to raise the Rafale issue to disrupt proceedings in both Houses, not the CBI issue which was decided upon at a meeting of the Opposition parties in the morning.

A leader from the Opposition camp said other parties had to act as a bridge between the Congress and the SP-BSP. “We made it clear to the Congress that while Rafale was important, it had already been discussed, and this issue (misuse of the CBI) is more”.

Later, in both Houses, as various parties trooped into the Well raising the CBI issue, Congress MPs were heard shouting slogans demanding a JPC on the Rafale deal.