BSP lawyers will present the party's side in court: Akhilesh Yadav on Supreme Court's view about Mayawati's statues

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) lawyers will present their side before the Supreme Court, which expressed a tentative view that party chief Mayawati has to deposit the public money used for erecting statues to the state exchequer.  The SP and the BSP have recently forged an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. “I don’t have full information about this. The court might have made some observations. BSP’s lawyers will put their side in the court,” Yadav said. The court, earlier in the day, said it was of the tentative view that Mayawati has to deposit public money used for erecting statues of herself and elephants, the party’s symbol, at parks in Lucknow and Noida to the state exchequer. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has posted the matter for final hearing on 2 April. Attacking the BJP without taking its name, the SP chief said, “A statue is going to be installed in the Lok Bhavan here. We will also install a statue of SP leader Ram Sharan Das there.” He was referring to the Yogi Adityanath government’s plan to install a 25-feet statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Lok Bhawan, which houses the chief minister’s office, in the state capital. The bench was hearing a petition filed by an advocate who had contended that public money cannot be utilised for creating own statues and for propagating the political party. The petitioner has alleged that crores of rupees was used from the state budget for 2008-09 to glorify Mayawati who was then the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.