Prayagraj, Apr 20 (PTI): Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday suggested that there was a plan to project Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as a prime ministerial candidate during the recently held Maha Kumbh and alleged that the BJP leader made it a political event.

"They wanted to turn it into a political Kumbh, not a religious one. It was not a Kumbh for devotees, but for political purposes,” Yadav told reporters here.

"It is being heard that during the Maha Kumbh, there was a plan to announce his (Adityanath's) name as the prime ministerial face," the former chief minister said.

He also alleged severe mismanagement in the organisation of the Maha Kumbh 2025 here.

“Have you ever seen TV channels being given interviews during a Kumbh? Such arrangements were made here. This entire mismanagement has caused a major blot on the organisation of the event,” he claimed.

“In the future, you will understand even better. Many things might not reach me, but you live here — you know the truth,” Yadav said.

The SP chief also said that the opposition INDIA bloc will continue in the 2027 UP Assembly elections.

He attacked the BJP, alleging it was trying to grab land like the mafia through the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

Yadav said that the "PDA (Backward, Dalits, and Minorities) would uproot the BJP" from the state in the 2027 assembly elections.

When asked about the INDIA bloc, he reiterated, "INDIA alliance is (present) and will remain", dispelling doubts about the fate of the alliance formed ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

"The BJP has brought the Waqf Amendment Bill so that it can snatch away land. Wherever they see land, they occupy it," he said and called the BJP "land mafia party".

He accused the ruling party of "snatching" people's money through demonetisation and GST and of diminishing reservation rights.

Yadav also promised an investigation into "mismanagement" in the Maha Kumbh, if his party comes to power in 2027 elections.

The SP chief claimed the government provided inaccurate figures regarding casualties and financial gains during the event, and alleged that drones and CCTV surveillance failed during the January stampede.

"When drones and CCTVs were needed the most (at the time of the stampede), they were either closed or were shut down," he claimed.

Yadav also accused the government of pressuring the relatives of stampede victims to change the cause of death.

Regarding SP MP Ramji Lal Suman's controversial statement on Rana Sanga, Yadav said, "The history which shows each other as superior and inferior, the history which stops our progress, that history should be allowed to remain."

Yadav provided journalists with a booklet of his suggestions for the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh 2025, originally posted on social media, and a Harvard University study on the 2013 Prayagraj Kumbh Mela.

He was in Prayagraj to attend the wedding of SP state president Shyam Lal Pal's daughter.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday expressed surprise that the Jharkhand High Court has not pronounced verdicts in 67 criminal appeals after reserving judgement and asked all high courts to submit report in a month on cases where judgements are pending.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh termed the development as "disturbing", and said it will law down some mandatory guidelines on the issue.

"This cannot be allowed to happen," the bench said, as it sought reports from all the high courts in four weeks on cases where judgement has been reserved on or before January 31, 2025 but verdict has not been pronounced till date.

The top court passed the directions after perusing the report filed by registrar general of the Jharkhand High Court in which it said in 56 criminal appeals heard by division bench from January, 2022 till December, 2024, the verdict has not been pronounced despite order being reserved.

It also noted that before the single bench judge, judgement has not been pronounced in 11 criminal appeals despite order being reserved.

The top court was hearing a plea of four life convicts, who have approached through advocate Fauzia Shakil, claiming that the Jharkhand high court had reserved orders on their appeals against conviction in 2022 but did not pronounce verdicts due to which they were not able to claim the benefit of remission.