Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday extended support to his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee who has accused the Union government of "deploying the army" along two highway toll plazas while keeping the state government "in the dark"."I feel whatever Mamataji is doing, the way she is raising her voice against the Centre, is a good thing. Things should happen within the knowledge of the state government. Mamataji has the right to know what is being done in her state by the centre, she is doing the right thing by voicing her concerns," he said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here. "I don't feel it is a healthy democracy where things happen in a state without the knowledge of the state government," said the Samajwadi Party leader. While the Indian Army has denied the Chief Minister's charges asserting the exercise has been conducted in coordination with local police authorities, Banerjee wondered if there was a military coup.Akhilesh Yadav said similar incidents also happened in his state.
"I am the Chief Minister of UP... don't I have right to know how much money is being sent to the banks?"For example if a terrorist is arrested (by the central agencies) from a state and the Chief Minister is not aware of that, is that acceptable? Such incidents have happened in UP also but I kept quiet as it was matter involving the country's security," he said. Banerjee who has been virtually at war with the Modi government over the demonetisation issue, spent Thursday night at the state secretariat, demanding "withdrawal of the army" and dubbed the motive behind the deployment "political, vindictive, unconstitutional, unethical and undemocratic". She has also got support from her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, who earlier on Friday said that Banerjee was targeted by the central government for daring it on demonetisation.