'Samajwadi Party does not have caste-based agenda': Akhilesh Yadav

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said that his government would honour the court's verdict to ban caste-based rallies in the state.

"We respect court's verdict. But every party is working to spread awareness among people. The Samajwadi Party doesn't have caste-based agenda," he told the media here.

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court earlier on July 11 banned holding of caste-based political rallies in Uttar Pradesh.

A division bench comprising Justices Umanath Singh and Mahendra Dayal, while hearing a PIL filed by a local lawyer Motilal Yadav, said: "Caste-based political meetings and rallies are against the Constitutional norms."

The next date of hearing is on July 25.

The ruling came in the backdrop of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) recently organising Brahmin Bhaichara Sammelan in Uttar Pradesh's 40 districts.

The Samajwadi Party had also organised a similar event in Lucknow recently besides a Muslim Sammelan.

The petitioner, who submitted that there was a spurt of caste-based political rallies in Uttar Pradesh, said political parties were organising caste-based rallies in the name of different castes like Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya etc.

Motilal Yadav submitted that while such events were causing damage to social unity and harmony, they were also vitiating the society which was against the spirit of the Constitution.