Yadav has not visited Azamgarh after winning the Lok Sabha elections results of which were declared on May 16. (Source: IE Archive) Yadav has not visited Azamgarh after winning the Lok Sabha elections results of which were declared on May 16. (Source: IE Archive)

Azamgarh MP Mulayam Singh Yadav is “missing” and any person, including Samajwadi Party workers, managing to bring him to his constituency, will be felicitated and rewarded, the BJP has announced. Yadav has not visited Azamgarh after winning the Lok Sabha elections, results of which were declared on May 16 this year.

Now, the local BJP unit has put up posters saying that the MP has gone “missing” and any person finding him will be suitably rewarded. These posters carry a photograph of Mulayam with slogans such as “Azamgarh ki janata kare pukar, khojo Mulayam pao inam”, “Azamgarh ne kiya elaan, khojo Saansad, pao inaam”.

Mulayam had won the Lok Sabha election both from Mainpuri and Azamgarh. He had resigned from his traditional Mainpuri seat while retaining Azamgarh from where he had defeated BJP’s Ramakant Yadav by 63,204 votes.

The campaign is being led by the BJP’s minority wing, which is focusing mostly on Muslim-dominant areas. “We have displayed posters in Sagri tehsil and adjoining areas and have announced reward to any person who brings Mulayam to Azamgarh,” Sophiyan Khan, district president of BJP minority wing, told The Indian Express. He said the reward money will be decided later.

Sophiyan said Mulayam, during the Lok Sabha campaign, had termed BJP’s Narendra Modi as an “outsider” in Varanasi. “But Modiji has already visited Varanasi three times after winning the election, that too when he is the Prime Minister. Mulayam is only an MP, but still he is not giving time to people of his constituency. Now, he is acting like an outsider,” Sophiyan said.

BJP district president Sahjanand Rai said about 15 days back party workers had taken out a “lantern march” in the city with posters with similar slogans. “Lantern was symbolically used to search the MP,” he added.

When contacted, SP district president Hawaldar Yadav accused the BJP of running a campaign against Mulayam with baseless allegations. “Photographs of Mulayamji have been put up in all the government offices in Azamgarh and development activities have started with his MP Local Area Development Fund. The district is getting round-the-clock power supply too,” he said, adding that locals visit the SP’s district office and their grievances were being redressed following directives from Netaji (Mulayam).

Admitting that that Mulayam has not nominated any representative for the constituency. Hawaldar Yadav claimed that the MP will visit Azamgarh in January.

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