SP leaders accuse Maya of giving them the 'itch'

Samajwadi Party on Thursday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of using dirty drain water to disperse protesting SP workers during the Bharat bandh on Monday.

"Chief Minister Mayawati's officials sprayed dirty drain water on SP workers, staging a demonstration last Monday, to mark their protest against the recent hike in petrol price," SP general secretary Shiv Pal Yadav said in Lucknow on Thursday.

In a memorandum given to UP Governor B L Joshi in this regard, Yadav claimed that 'not only me and my nephew Akhilesh Yadav, the state SP president, but several other leaders of our party were complaining of severe itch ever since we were drenched with the dirty drain water.'

The SP therefore sought the Governor's intervention and action against the Maya regime.

Interestingly, Yadav, who is the younger brother of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, further took exception to the raw deal meted out to party leaders during their detention after arrest at the local police lines.

"There wasn't even any arrangement of toilets for the detained workers. The administration did not even care to arrange tea or water for us, while we were kept under detention at the Lucknow district police lines," he said.