Slamming the state government for passing off the Hathras stampede as a conspiracy, Akhilesh Yadav warned the Yogi Adityanath dispensation that it can’t run away from its accountability for the tragic incident.

In a statement on Thursday, the Samajwadi Party president said, “Hathras was not a conspiracy but trying to suppress it is.”

Expressing deep concern over the fact that a large number of poor women and children lost their lives in the stampede at a religious programme, he said, “While the programme is not first of its kind, the tragedy is. Such programmes keep taking place in the state. It is the responsibility of the administration to prevent such mishaps.”

He pointed out that even the organisers had no clue about such a large number of people coming to attend their programme. The administration should admit its responsibility and take steps to ensure that such incidents do not recur in future.

“Blame game in the aftermath of such a catastrophe won’t serve any purpose. But the way the BJP is making pictures viral on social media shows that it has learnt no lessons from the past. It is their old habit… This is why they have lost the Lok Sabha elections and will lose in future too,” Akhilesh Yadav said referring to the viral photographs of him with Bhole Baba, the godman who had held the satsang programme.

The SP chief was speaking to the media here on Thursday after former BSP MP Haji Fazlur Rehman and his supporters joined the SP.

He alleged that the health services in the state have worsened. “The claims of opening new medical colleges ruined the existing ones. The state health minister is busy recovering his political health. God knows what the chief minister has made that he is not able to work. The government cannot run away from its responsibility,” he said.

On his joining the SP, Fazlur Rahman attributed it to the SP chief persona. He was impressed by the simplicity and honesty of Akhilesh Yadav when he met him in the last Lok Sabha elections.

Welcoming Fazlur Rahman, the SP president said in the 2019 elections, he had appealed to vote for the alliance candidate Haji Fazlur Rahman, who was elected by the public. “With Fazlur Rahman in the party fold, the SP will become stronger. If the party comes to power in UP, an expressway from Saharanpur to Lucknow will be constructed.”