E-Paper
Akhilesh accuses BJP of fielding 99 candidates with criminal past
There is a difference between our nominees and theirs, BJP candidates were booked for political agitations, says UP law minister while refuting Akhilesh Yadav’s allegations
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of giving the party tickets for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls to 99 candidates with criminal antecedents.
“The BJP is short of hitting a century. They have given tickets to 99 candidates with criminals antecedents,” Akhilesh Yadav said.
The war of words between the Akhilesh-led SP and BJP leaders has rapidly escalated over the allegation about “criminals, mafia, and rioters” contesting the elections since the SP released its first list of candidates on January 24. Besides Union home minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and almost all BJP leaders campaigning in UP have hit out at the SP over candidates with criminal antecedents on the main opposition party’s first list.
The BJP has declared 295 candidates so far while the Samajwadi Party has named candidates on 262 seats. Uttar Pradesh has 403 assembly seats.
Akhilesh began the counter-attack the day after the BJP’s first attack on January 24.
In a tweet on January 25, Akhilesh had said: “Of the 195 candidates declared so far by the BJP, 82, including the BJP team’s captain (Yogi Adityanath) and the vice-captain (Keshav Prasad Maurya), have the criminal image...And the Delhi team, in honour of them, should declare Lakhimpur Kheri as the state capital instead of Lucknow.” It was a reference to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident of October 3, 2021 in which four farmers were mowed down by SUVs associated with BJP leaders. A local journalist and three others, including two BJP workers, were also killed in violence that day.
“The chief minister and the deputy chief minister have so many cases on them that the cases outnumber even the IPC sections,” Akhilesh Yadav had claimed at a press conference the same day (January 25).
Sharpening his attack with a reference to updated figures, Akhilesh in another tweet in Hindi wrote on Sunday: “Baba ji’s breaking news: BJP list is just short of one in completing the century of those with criminal image...so far it has given tickets to 99 candidates with criminal image.”
Uttar Pradesh law minister Brajesh Pathak refuted Akhilesh Yadav’s allegations about the BJP having fielded 99 candidates with criminal records in the Uttar Pradesh elections.
“There is a difference between their candidates and ours. Many of their candidates have a history sheet, but the BJP candidates that Akhilesh ji is referring to are those who were booked for political agitations. Actions categorised under heads like road blockades and disrupting government work, too, are classified under the same sections of the Indian Penal Code as others. But, as we have cleared that there is a world of difference between our candidates and theirs,” the law minister said.
“The SP government under Akhilesh ji was riddled with scams. There was laptop scam, scholarship scam, pension scam, riverfront scam, Lohia village scam. There were more than 700 riots during their regime. In their government, some of the rioters were even felicitated. But everyone has seen the change that has come about since 2017,” he said.
Earlier, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was among the first to attack the SP over its list of candidates, on January 24 said: “Many thanks to the Samajwadi Party for finally declaring its list of candidates, whose names the party had been releasing secretly. Now that the list is finally out, the SP’s brand ambassadors have been revealed...The list has names like Nahid Hasan, Azam Khan, Abdullah Azam, Sultan Begh, Mehboob Ali, Aslam Chaudhary, Irfan Solanki, some of whom are in jail or out on bail”.
Recently, Union home minister Amit Shah said during his tours in the state that if the SP comes to power, there will be a reign of criminals in the state.
In an apparent dig at the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh under the previous SP regime, Shah said that ever since Yogi came to power, the criminals of the state are either in jail or in the Samajwadi Party.
Yogi Adityanath, meanwhile, has said that when he returns to power after the assembly elections, he would continue with his bulldozer policies against criminals.
BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, at a press conference last week, said that the SP was giving tickets to people like Nahid Hasan.
“Thankfully, Kasab (Ajmal Kasab) was hanged or else the SP would have had made him its star campaigner,” Patra had said.
On Nahid Hasan, Akhilesh said that he was framed under a conspiracy.
Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in seven phases between February 10 and March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
