India, Feb. 25 -- LUCKNOW Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday upped the ante against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging that it weakened the public education system by shutting down thousands of government schools.

"The BJP government first conspired to close 27,000 government schools in Uttar Pradesh under the guise of mergers. Now, the 'anti-education' BJP government has admitted in the Rajya Sabha that 18,727 government schools have closed down during the last five years of BJP rule," he said in a statement.

"This is a huge conspiracy against our country's future. Do the BJP and its allies want only the children of the rich to study, and not the deprived children of the PDA community," he asked.

The SP chief ...