Bring 100 MLAs, form govt: Akhilesh Yadav's 'monsoon offer' amid BJP rift speculation
Lucknow, Jul 18: Amid speculation of a rift in the Uttar Pradesh BJP, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday, in a cryptic post on X, seemed to be asking ruling party MLAs to switch sides to form a new government in the state.
"Monsoon offer: Bring hundred, form government," the former chief minister said.
While Yadav did not name anyone in his post, a senior SP leader said on the condition of anonymity that it was a message for those in the BJP who were dissatisfied with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and wanted to cross over.
"The SP won 111 seats in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and if we get the support of 100 dissatisfied BJP MLAs, then we will easily form the government," the SP leader explained.
The speculation about the rift in the BJP's state unit was fuelled by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's post on X on Wednesday stating that the party is bigger than the government.
He also urged all ministers, MLAs and public representatives to respect party workers.
Maurya had met BJP president J P Nadda in Delhi on Tuesday but neither the BJP nor the deputy chief minister said anything about the meeting.
There has long been a buzz about less-than-warm relations between Maurya and Adityanath. In private conversations, a number of BJP leaders from the state, including those who lost in the Lok Sabha polls, have been critical of the chief minister's working style and cited it as one of the reasons for their loss.
मानसून ऑफ़र: सौ लाओ, सरकार बनाओ!
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) July 18, 2024
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Nine dead as fire breaks out in residential building in east Delhi
New Delhi (PTI): A fire broke out in a residential building in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar early Sunday, leaving nine people belonging to two families dead, including a toddler, officials said.
The incident was reported around 3.48 am at a four-storey building in Vivek Vihar Phase-I, following which police, fire and disaster management teams rushed to the spot.
According to the police, the blaze engulfed flats on the second, third and fourth floors of the building, prompting a large-scale rescue operation.The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
The Delhi Fire Service (DFS) said nine charred bodies were recovered from different floors.
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"One body was recovered from the first floor, five from the second floor and three from the staircase which was found locked," the DFS officer said.
Those found dead on the second floor have been identified as Arvind Jain (60), his wife Anita Jain (58), son Nishant Jain (35), daughter-in-law Anchal Jain (33) and grandchild Akash Jain.
On the third floor, three members of a family were found dead. They were identified as Nitin Jain (50), wife Shailey Jain (48) and son Samyak Jain (25).
On the first floor a woman identified as Shikha Jain (45) was found dead while her husband Naveen Jain (48) sustained injuries.
A senior police officer said, "Around 10 to 15 people were rescued from the premises during the firefighting operation. Two of them, who sustained minor injuries, were shifted to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital."
A total of 12 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, while teams from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), traffic police and local police assisted in the rescue and evacuation efforts.
Police said the fire was brought under control after several hours. Efforts are underway to determine the cause of the fire, police said.
Further investigation and proceedings are underway.
