As Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed to Samajwadi Party bastion Azamgarh to lay the foundation stone for the Purvanchal Expressway, former CM Akhilesh Yadav criticized successor Yogi Adityanath for dropping Varanasi from the project.

“I am sure even the Prime Minister is not aware of the fact that his constituency Varanasi has been dropped from the Purvanchal Expressway that he is inaugurating today. Not just Varanasi but also hometown of CM, Gorakhpur, and Ayodhya have been dropped from the Purvanchal Expressway,” Yadav said.

The SP chief had on Friday accused the BJP government of taking credit for the Purvanchal Expressway and claimed that the project was finalised during his tenure as CM. “Purvanchal expressway is not theirs (BJP), it’s just their habit of claiming projects done by us.”
 

Taking a jibe at the ruling party, he added, “We had built Agra-Lucknow Expressway in record time. We wanted to extend Agra-Lucknow expressway to Purvanchal. It was Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway but they have removed Samajwadi and now they are laying the foundation stone for the work done by us.”
 

PM Modi will lay the foundation stone for the 340-km expressway when he visits Azamgarh on Sunday as part of his two-day trip which will also cover Varanasi and Mirzapur.

The six-lane expressway, which can be expanded to eight lanes, will provide a smooth ride between Lucknow and Ghazipur in eastern UP.

Both the BJP and the SP seemed to be trying to take credit for the project keeping the 2019 general elections in mind.

The state BJP spokesperson Chandramohan meanwhile said the government had taken up the project to help develop eastern UP. It will connect the state capital Lucknow with economically less developed districts like Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar and Amethi, he said.