Hitting back at the Samajwadi Party (SP) for criticising the law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh under the BJP rule, the saffron party today accused it of giving political patronage to mafia elements, referring to criminal-turned-politicians Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmad.
UP BJP spokesperson Shalabh Mani Tripathi said the nexus between the SP and criminal elements became clear, when the SP and the BSP opposed the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Act (UPCOCA) legislation during its passage.
"SP's real face has been unmasked as today it is raising questions on law and order, but it was the SP, which had given political patronage to Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmad. It was in the SP reign that MLA Krishnanand Rai was brutally murdered. Instead of standing with the bereaved family of Rai, the SP sided with Mukhtar Ansari. Similar was the scene when Raju Pal (an MLA from Allahabad) was murdered, and SP gave patronage to Atiq Ahmad," Tripathi said in a statement issued here.
Referring to yesterday's alleged killing of gangster Munna Bajrangi inside a jail in Baghpat, the UP BJP spokesperson said, "Taking serious cognisance of the incident, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath not only initiated action against the officers responsible, but also issued instructions to act tough against the killers."
Tripathi's rebuttal came in the backdrop of former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav today slamming the Adityanath government for "lack" of law and order in the state.
"In present day Uttar Pradesh, there is no law and order, just an atmosphere of panic. The perpetrators have become so confident that they have murdered someone in prison. These are the government's failures. The people of the state are very scared; the state has never seen such misrule and chaos before," the SP president tweeted in Hindi.
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