Amitabh is the state’s brand ambassador and a member of the high-profile UP Vikas Parishad headed by SP general secretary Amar Singh.
LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh is now using superstar Amitabh Bachchan in its political battle against the Congress Party. Amitabh is the state’s brand ambassador and a member of the high-profile UP Vikas Parishad headed by SP general secretary Amar Singh.
The SP cadres have started off a round of protests against the latest Income Tax department notice to Bachchan which mentions a pair of shades worth Rs2.70 lakh that he allegedly gifted to a film director.
The SP strategy seems to be aimed at projecting Amitabh as a victim of the Centre’s conspiracy and employ his immense popularity to generate public ire against the Congress. The move would also help Mulayam Singh, under pressure over his disproportionate assets case pending in the Supreme Court, and Amar Singh, already on the defensive after the phone-tapping episode, to withdraw into the wings for the time being.
SP cadres on Monday barged into the Income Tax office in Allahabad, shouting slogans against the Central government and the IT department. They smashed furniture and misbehaved with the officials. A number of them sporting glasses carried placards challenging the IT department to tax them too for wearing expensive glasses. A similar scene was witnessed in Lucknow where Samajwadi Party youth wing activists staged a demonstration at the gates of the Income Tax Department office. Here, too, several of them sported dark glasses.
In fact, Amitabh is just a perfect foil while the real target is the Income Tax Department. A senior IT official said Mulayam was getting even with the department for the Income Tax notice sent on June 6 to Mulayam, his son and SP MP Akhilesh Yadav, his daughter-in-law Dimple, and his son from his second wife, Pratik, in the case involving their disproportionate assets. “Income Tax notices have been sent to Amitabh earlier too. Why didn’t the SP ever raise such a ruckus?” he asked.
In Varanasi on Sunday, SP workers had burnt effigies of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.
Clearly, the Congress-Samajwadi Party tussle promises to get even more spiteful with each passing day.
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