Samajwadi Party to oppose 'love jihad' in UP Assembly

A day after Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel signed the ordinance on forced religious conversions, the Samajwadi Party announced that it will oppose the 'love jihad' law when it comes up in the Assembly next month.

Samajwadi Party (SP)President Akhilesh Yadav said his party is not in favour of such a law and will oppose it strongly.

"On one hand, the government offers Rs 50,000 to those opting for inter-caste and inter-religion marriages, and on the other, they have brought this law. We will ask the government to bring a law which guarantees doubling of farmers' income instead," he said.

The SP chief accused the BJP government of planning to sell a government-owned shopping mall worth Rs 1,000 crore to a private entity at throwaway prices. He further added that an expressway was also being sold in a similar fashion.

"This will be probed when time comes. We will expose the corruption this government is indulging in," he said.

Akhilesh further said it is ironic that the government talks of zero tolerance for corruption but, in an international survey, the country has figured on the top of the list of nations where bribery is most prevalent.

Reacting to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's announcement of setting up 10,000 MW solar power units, Yadav said, "He does not know anything about a solar panel. During the SP government, we had set up a solar power unit. The unit produced enough power to meet  the needs of an entire village, but this government snapped the supply saying the villagers have not paid bills."