SP government not following Lohia, women unsafe in UP: Nitish

Lucknow, July 26 (IANS) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Samajwadi Party (SP) government in Uttar Pradesh and accused it of deviating from the ideals of socialist ideologue Dr Ram Manohar Lohia.

Addressing a rally of Bahujan Samaj Party rebel R.K. Chowdhary's supporters in the state capital, Nitish Kumar said while the Samajwadi Party tom-toms Dr Lohia's name to garner votes, it never followed his principles.

The Janata Dal-United leader said women were not safe in Uttar Pradesh and that the Akhilesh Yadav government had failed to safeguard their honour.

The Bihar Chief Minister said his Janata Dal-United and Chowdhary's party will jointly fight to save the honour of women in the most populous state of the country.

Nitish Kumar also urged the people to follow the ideals of Dalit icons like Chhatrapati Shahu ji Maharaj who always espoused the cause of education for the downtrodden and the marginalised.

He also accused the district administration of trying to prevent him from reaching the rally site at the behest of the state government.

The JD-U leader was earlier held up at a guesthouse for more than four hours as the district administration denied him permission to address the rally.