Bhubaneswar, April 16 (IANS) Samajwadi Party (SP) President and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Wednesday that the central investigating agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) should be shut down if misused.

“Agencies like ED should be shut down if misused for a political vendetta. I would also appeal to Congress to demand that agencies like ED should be closed down,” said the former Chief Minister while addressing a press conference in Odisha on Wednesday.

While answering a query on ED’s chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in National Herald Case, the SP President said that the ED Act was originally brought in by Congress.

“Back then, many parties had raised concerns. Now the ED is being misused,” he said.

Akhilesh also claimed that the central agencies CBI, ED and Income Tax Department are being misused against all the leaders who are opposing the BJP.

Meanwhile, on the Murshidabad violence, Akhilesh said that wherever any communal tension takes place, the leaders of all political parties should appeal to the local people that the society can’t grow with such type of violence.

“Everyone should try to ensure such violence or fights don’t take place over religious or caste issues anywhere in the society,” he said.

Akhilesh, while reacting sharply to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s comment on the Murshidabad violence, said: “Just wearing a saffron colour doesn’t make someone a Yogi. The Gita says a true Yogi is one who feels the pain of others as his own, not someone who causes pain through words.”

Akhilesh said that the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is a “zero” in everything.

“Due to Yogi Adityanath’s efforts, Uttar Pradesh ranks 1st or 2nd from below in all major rankings in various fields at the national level. Yet, he (Yogi Adityanath) is content with it,” said the former Chief Minister.

He also alleged that the BJP is involved in every major riot that occurred in Uttar Pradesh in the past.

Targeting the ruling BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, he said that the state government did not declare the names or release any list of Hindu pilgrims who went missing or died in Maha Kumbh because the state has to give compensation to relatives of the deceased.

On the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, not visiting Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Akhilesh said that it is his faith.

Speaking on the issue of Tamil Nadu, he said, “We support the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s stand on delimitation. There is a conspiracy to rig the system so that they can win easily by manipulating boundaries.”