SP remembers Chandra Shekhar to woo Thakurs

LUCKNOW: Eyeing the Thakur votebank in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party will hold a big rally in Lucknow on April 17 on the 88th birth anniversary of former PM Chandra Shekhar.
The party plans to thank the Akhilesh government for declaring a public holiday on Chandra Shekhar's birth anniversary. Posters and signboards of former PM with leading Thakur leaders of SP, including Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, Arvind Singh Gope and Om Prakash Singh, have come up in the city.
The move is being seen as an attempt of the party to galvanize support from the Thakur community which has supported the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections. The SP has always worked to establish a pro-Thakur image, be it inducting Raja Bhaiya in Akhilesh cabinet or assigning new and important posts to Thakurs in the party hierarchy like appointment of Gope as the party general secretar.
The Dhanyavad Diwas is being organized by the Chandra Shekhar Trust which is headed by SP MLC Yashwant Singh. Books on the life and times of former PM will also be released on the occasion.
Gope, however, denied that Dhanyavad Diwas had any political colours. “SP government has declared Chandra Shekhar Ji’s birth anniversary as a public holiday and we are only thanking the government. Chandra Shkehar Ji was not just a leader of the Thakurs alone but was country’s PM. This event should not be seen merely as a Thakur community event,” Gope told TOI.
“I have been a part of many events organized by the Chandra Shekhar Trust, which adds meaning to my participation in the event,” said Raja Bhaiya.