LUCKNOW: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of Noida International airport in Jewar, the battle for grabbing the credit continued unabated with both Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) being the claimants on Thursday.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted in Hindi, stating that "had the BJP government at the Centre given permission for the proposed airport to be built in Firozabad during the SP government, the bangles would have associated with 'jewar' (jewel) and the development of UP would have progressed towards perfection."
The Samajwadi Party has also claimed the credit for conceptualizing the Purvanchal Expressway, inaugurated by Modi recently.
On the other, the BSP accused the then Congress-led UPA government of blocking the project the blueprint of which was prepared during the tenure of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also made a similar claim.
Mayawati through a Twitter post launched an attack on Congress saying that the BSP government was giving new directions to the development of UP through Taj International Air[port at Jewar in Gautam Buddhnagar and an expressway from Noida to Baliam but Congress put obstacles in the projects before they could take off.
In another tweet, the BPS chief said: “After a decade of two governments -- first SP and now BJP -- the foundation of this ambitious project could be laid whereas such developmental projects should be started and completed within the scheduled time. At the time of state elections, the foundation laying ceremony leads to doubts over the intentions of the government.”
With the high-voltage Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due next year, parties in the fray have not missed an opportunity to target each other. While the BJP has inaugurated a slew of developmental projects with an eye on the polls, Opposition parties are still working out their alliances and wrangling over credit.