Digvijay defends Akhilesh on law and order

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Defending the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh under Akhilesh Yadav, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday said it takes time for anyone to get into the groove of things and he also faced a similar problem after becoming the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for the first time.

"It takes some time to get accustomed to things...when I had become the chief minister it was difficult to understand things for the first six months", Singh who is here in connection with the presidential election told reporters when quizzed about the law and order problem in UP.

"He is young and has been elected by the people...we have full faith that he would work as per the expectations of the people", Singh said adding that everyone including the Centre was extending support to him honouring the mandate of the electorate.

Asked whether Congress and Samajwadi Party are together, Singh replied in the negative recalling that his party had contested the Assembly election against the SP just recently.

"We will remain with the people and wherever there is injustice we will fight for them", Singh said.

The Congress leader said that the fresh aid granted by the Centre was not a special package saying that it is merely the annual plan decided by the Planning Commission as per the demands of the state including one for the Maha Kumbh.

On demands for an active role for Rahul Gandhi, Singh said that it was surfacing from everywhere, including from within the Congress, and he too had been saying so since the past two years.

Singh thanked Samajwadi Party, BSP, RLD and others for supporting UPA presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee and said that he is happy that almost 90 per cent MLAs in the state would vote for him. "We are happy that they decided to back the right person at the right time", he added.