Akhilesh jumps over gate to garland JP’s statue

Lucknow, Oct 11: Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav and his supporters, in a dramatic turn of events, on Wednesday scaled the main gate of Jayaprakash Narayan International Centre (JPNIC) to pay tribute to the late leader on his birth anniversary.

The main gate had been locked and tin sheets were put up allegedly to prevent anyone from entering the premises of the JPNIC.

Akhilesh had been denied permission to pay tributes to Jayaprakash Narayan in the JPNIC on "security grounds".

The JPNIC complex was built by Akhilesh Yadav during his tenure from 2012-17 when he was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. However, Akhilesh Yadav lost the 2017 assembly elections and failed to return to power in the 2022 state elections and the building is still incomplete.

Though the building work is still not complete, a statue of Jayaprakash Narayan is installed inside the building. Akhilesh garlands the statue every year. As soon as Akhilesh Yadav crossed and jumped the boundary, the workers accompanying him also emulated him and entered inside the building and garlanded the statue of Jayaprakash Narayan.

"JP was the hero of the 'Sampurn Kranti', the government did not want to allow us to garland his statue and the government is suppressing the voice of socialists. I had to enter by jumping the wall as I was stopped. I come here and garland the statue every year, however, the police deployed this time stopped me from doing so," Akhilesh told reporters.

Earlier, Akhilesh had also posted on X (formerly Twitter) the video of the building and alleged that arrangements were made to stop him from entering the building premises.