As soon as the House met, Mr. Adityanath informed that a white powder was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Choudhry on July 12. An emergency meeting was called on the same day to discuss the recovery of the explosive, he added.

Terming it as a conspiracy, the Chief Minister said the NIA should probe the matter. Stressing that there should be no compromise on security, Mr. Adityanath said joint efforts were needed to ensure this.

The package, which weighed around 150 gms, was found under Samajwadi Party MLA Manoj Pandey’s seat. Following this, security officials rushed in to recover the packet, which was later sent to a forensic lab.

About the security issue, HT quoted Adityanath saying, “Police verification needs to be done for workers in assembly. Security guidelines must be issued and everyone must follow them.”

Tests revealed that the powder is a plastic explosive Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN).

Meanwhile, rival parties took this opportunity to throw jibes at the UP government’s security loopholes, NDTV reported.

Rajendra Chaudhary of the Samajwadi Party said, “If this is the state of affairs that inside the Assembly something like this is found, then you can understand the situation of law and order in UP.”

Feature image source: PTI