Bareilly, Apr 26 (PTI) Samajwadi Party's Bhojipura MLA Shazil Islam, booked for allegedly making provocative remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, did not meet a 12-member delegation of his party on Tuesday.

As the SP delegation led by party MLC Sanjay Lathar reached Islam's residence in Bareilly, it found the MLA's house locked and had to return without meeting him.

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The development comes a couple of days after another SP MLA Ravidas Mehrotra failed to meet senior party leader Azam Khan, lodged in the Sitapur district jail.

The SP leaders failed to meet their party colleagues despite Congress leader Pramod Krishnam and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia Shivpal Yadav having met Khan earlier in jail.

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SP MLA Ravidas Mehrotra, claiming to be an emissary of party president Akhilesh Yadav, had visited Sitapur jail on Sunday to see Khan but was turned away with the jail authorities telling him that the inmate was “unwell”.

But some reports suggested that Khan didn't want to see him.

After his failure to meet Islam, Lathar, also the Leader of Opposition in the UP Legislative Council, on Tuesday insinuated that Islam failed to meet him because the Yogi Adityanath government wants “to keep people frightened”.

"MLA Shazil Islam could not meet the delegation of the Samajwadi Party due to personal and family reasons,” Mehrotra told reporters.

“The Yogi (Adityanath) government is very 'nirdayee' (cruel). It wants to keep people frightened. And, it is because of this that they are operating bulldozers. The state government is spreading terror. We will raise this matter in the House," the SP MLA added.

After failing to meet Islam, the SP delegation led by Lathar met Bareilly District Magistrate Shivakant Dwivedi and Senior Superintendent of Police Rohit Singh Sajwan and handed over a memorandum to them regarding the demolition of Islam's 'illegal' petrol pump.

Shazil Islam had earlier targeted Chief Minister Adityanath, saying if he makes any “noise” now, the SP guns will “not emit smoke, but fire bullets”.

As a video of his remarks went viral on social media, the MLA contended that his comments had been “edited” by a news channel.

Addressing a party meeting in his constituency, Islam had said, "Earlier, we had fewer MLAs in Uttar Pradesh and so Chief Minister Adityanath used to attack us in his speeches. He only stopped short of hurling abuses at us."

The MLA had told his party workers that there was no need to be afraid of the BJP now and if the saffron party tried to have its way, the SP will protest and block the streets.

Subsequently, a petrol pump that was allegedly built illegally by Shazil Islam was demolished on April 7.

The demolition of the fuel station at Parsakheda on the Bareilly-Delhi National Highway was carried out by the Bareilly Development Authority using a bulldozer, an official had said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)