A day after Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party president Shivpal Singh Yadav called on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath amid the speculations that the former is set to end his alliance with his nephew and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, newly-elected Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Thursday said that Adityanath is the chief minister of 24 crore population of Uttar Pradesh and can meet anyone.

“Yogi Adityanath is the chief minister of 24 crore population in Uttar Pradesh. Anyone can meet him. Recently, he also met Akhilesh Yadav,” UP Deputy CM told ANI.

Shivpal is miffed with the Samajwadi Party chief for not inviting him for a meeting of all the SP legislators. It seems Akhilesh Yadav’s “reunion” with uncle Shivpal Yadav was apparently short-lived. Days after the Samajwadi Party lost the Uttar Pradesh election, speculations are rife that Shivpal Yadav is set to end his alliance with Akhilesh.

“I was not invited to the party meeting. I waited for two days and cancelled all my programs for this meeting but I wasn’t invited. I am an MLA from Samajwadi Party but still not invited,” Shivpal told ANI.

Shivpal Singh Yadav severed ties with Samajwadi Party in 2017 but contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections from Jaswantnagar as SP’s candidate.

Keshav Prasad Maurya met senior BJP leaders including JP Nadda, Nitin Gadkari among others in the national capital yesterday to take blessings and guidance for working further in Uttar Pradesh.

He said that the second tenure has started with development works in Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath.

“Under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, the second consecutive term has started in UP. Development works and the welfare of poor people are still going on. I will serve the people of Uttar Pradesh with my utmost honesty,” Maurya stated.

He affirmed that “Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra” or BJP’s manifesto is the foremost priority for the party to move ahead.

Speaking about Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi’s remark on MGNREGA, KP Maurya said, “There is no need to say much about her statement. If Congress had done something good for the state, then BJP would not have been in power, PM Modi would not have been the Prime Minister of India. They should contemplate their own mistakes.”

He continued slamming Congress saying that the party should take an oath to ‘rectify’ their misdeeds.

Earlier on Thursday, Sonia Gandhi claimed that the MGNREGS budget for the current year is 35 per cent less than that of 2020 even when unemployment is continuously rising in the country.

She also urged that Centre to ensure proper budget allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) while also making payment of wages to laborers within 15 days of work.