BJP targeting Jain community through raids: Akhilesh

Lucknow: The tax raids on perfumers in Kannauj and Kanpur has finally taken a casteist colour. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has said that the BJP was targeting the minority Jain community.

Both the perfumers -- Piyush Jain and Pushpraj Jain -- who have been raided, belong to the Jain community.

"There are around 50 lakh Jains who are known for their hard work, but the BJP is targeting them and conducting raids to harass them," Akhilesh said.

"That is not all. Another minority -- the Anglo-Indians -- had a single seat reserved for them in the UP Assembly, but the chief minister has done away with it too," he said.

Akhilesh, who began his 10th leg of Vijay Yatra on Sunday, said that the BJP government's approach has created a situation where every section of the society is looking for a change in the government.

During the yatra, Akhilesh offered prayers at the newly constructed temple of Lord Parshuram at Mahurakalan village along Purvanchal Expressway.

He said the BJP leaders and the chief minister were targeting only the Samajwadi Party in their speeches instead of showcasing the development works done under the BJP government.

"They will never talk of having failed to double the income of farmers that they had promised in their 'Sankalp Patra'. They will never talk of jobs that they had promised to the youth. It is because of the wrong policies of the BJP that prices of essential commodities are rising by the day," he said.

He said most of the development works at IT City and Chak Gajaria was done under the SP regime. "We brought HCL as a result of which people from UP, who had to go to Hyderabad and Bangalore for study and jobs, got the opportunity here itself," he said.