Convicted MLAs attend UP CM's lunch for Pranab

Over hundred days after becoming the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav is courting more controversies. Two convicted criminals-turned-politician - Mukhtar Ansari and Vijay Mishra - were the special invitees to the lunch hosted by the UP Chief Minister in the honour of United Progressive Alliance's (UPA's) presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee in Lucknow on Tuesday.

Both are in jail for different offences. Ansari from the Kaumi Ekta Dal is serving a jail sentence on charges of murder and kidnapping, while Mishra, a SP MLA was jailed for murdering a BSP MLA in Allahabad.

As per law, any jailed legislator only has the right to attend an assembly session. UP's assembly session ended on Tuesday afternoon. Ansari and Mishra should have gone back to jail after the session. But instead of going back to jail, Ansari and Mishra lunched at CM's house in total violation of law.

But the Congress, caught in an embarrassing situation of seeing tainted MLAs meeting its Presidential nominee, tried to wriggle out of the situation.

Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said, "It's not as if they were joining the Congress, but they shouldn't have been allowed." The loser in the case is Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Whether it's doling out cars worth Rs 20 lakh to his MLAs or allowing jailed MLAs to a state lunch in violation of laws, the youngest Chief Minister's honeymoon period is quickly coming to an end. - Bhupendra Chaubey