UP assembly: Congress protests MGNREGA, SP raises SIR concerns

The Budget Session of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly is witnessing repeated disruptions as allies in the Opposition INDIA bloc — the Indian National Congress and the Samajwadi Party — press separate demands against the BJP-led state government.

While both parties are aligned nationally under the INDIA bloc, they have chosen divergent issues to agitate within Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress has intensified its attack over the alleged dilution and irregular implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), accusing the state government of failing to ensure timely wage payments to workers and undermining the scheme’s original intent. On Tuesday, the party organised a ‘Vidhan Sabha Gherao’ outside the assembly complex in Lucknow as part of its ‘MGNREGA Bachao’ campaign.

Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai said the protest was aimed at highlighting non-payment of wages and what he described as attempts to weaken a law enacted during the UPA government to guarantee 100 days of employment to rural households. He alleged that the poor were being deprived of their rightful benefits and linked the issue to broader concerns about governance in the state.

Congress MP Kishori Lal Sharma said party workers from across districts were mobilised for the protest, adding that peaceful demonstrations were a democratic right. AICC General Secretary Avinash Pandey stated that the agitation had been building for over 40 days through public outreach programmes and chaupals across the state. He said senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, had criticised proposed changes to MGNREGA, asserting that the party would continue its struggle until workers’ rights were restored.

In contrast, the Samajwadi Party has focused its protests on the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls. The party has alleged misuse of Form 7 — used for objections and deletion of names from voter lists — claiming that names of poor, Dalit and Adivasi (PDA) voters are being removed on a large scale.

SP MLA Anil Pradhan questioned the need for fresh deletions when verification exercises had already been completed, alleging that BJP workers were misusing Form 7 across the state. He said party chief Akhilesh Yadav had repeatedly raised the issue with the Election Commission of India but had not received a satisfactory response.

Another SP MLA, Sachin Yadav, said the party would submit a memorandum to the Election Commission demanding that the alleged misuse of Form 7 be stopped. He claimed that reports of voter deletions were emerging from multiple regions of Uttar Pradesh.

With IANS inputs