LUCKNOW, Oct 29: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who on Sunday visited the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium here for the India-England World Cup clash, reminded that the sports arena was built during his party’s tenure and asked the BJP government to ensure international-level traffic arrangements for the matches here.
The former chief minister’s remarks came as the roads leading to the stadium witnessed heavy traffic jam before the match.
The stadium was built in Lucknow during the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) regime when Yadav was the chief minister.
The SP chief pointed out that the Ekana stadium built by his government opened up avenues to increase the business opportunities of the people here.
“This has generated lakhs of direct and indirect employment opportunities and has given a new boost to sports tourism. The hotels are full and the taxi and catering businesses as well as Lucknow’s famous Chikankari markets are all buzzing. Also due to the culture of Lucknow, tourists are flocking to it and after seeing the beauty of the Ekana Stadium, people are saying: please smile, you are in Ekana!” Yadav said in a post on ‘X’ in Hindi with his pictures from the stadium.
The former chief minister in an earlier post said he expected the BJP government to make international-level traffic management for the World Cup match between India and England here.
“As a standard of the country’s ‘sports infrastructure, SP built an international level cricket stadium in Lucknow, where the World Cup match is being held today. It is hoped that the BJP government of Uttar Pradesh will also make international level traffic arrangements for this so that the players and spectators do not face any inconvenience,” Yadav said.
Speaking to reporters outside the stadium later, the SP chief said, “A number of BJP workers may have come here (for the match). Although there will be no smile on their faces seeing the work done by the ‘samajwadis’, but inside their hearts, they would feel happy and thanking the ‘samajwadis'”.
On the runs scored by India against England, he said, “I am not an expert of cricket, but I had wanted that India should have scored in excess of 250 runs. But I am fully confident that India will win the match.”
Asked to bat first by England after it won the toss, host India scored 229 runs for the loss of nine wickets. (PTI)
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