UP mulling jobs for SP workers: Shivpal

Lauding the contribution of the SP workers in bringing the party to power with an absolute majority, Yadav, an uncle of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, told a gathering of the party's central wing Wednesday at Gandhi Bhavan auditorium here that the government was seriously contemplating jobs for them.

The statement, SP's city president Mujib-ur-Rahman said, was in sync with the party's stand of rewarding loyal party workers.

Reacting strongly to the statement, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak Thursday said he found this not only strange but appalling that a minister of such seniority was making such "silly statements".

"I find this completely ridiculous. How can an elected state government, which is mandated to look after the needs of every section of the society speak of providing government jobs to party workers," he mused.

The minister had earlier also courted controversy when he reportedly told officials in a meeting last year that it was fine to steal a little but they should not loot.

"If you work, you can steal a little," he had told officials.