The Samajwadi Party (SP), the prinicipal Opposition party in Uttar Pradesh, accused Chief Minister Yogi Adityananth of patronising strongmen and criminals from his own caste while his administration indulged in selective targeting of criminals.
In the wake of the killing of former MP and don Atiq Ahmed and his brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, the party tweeted, “Yogi ji says he will raze the mafias (criminals) to the ground. But by eliminating the rival mafias of his own caste mafias, he is preparing the ground for mafia belonging to his own caste to operate openly, extort and commit crimes. Yogi ji is using the power of the government and the police for this work.”
The SP further alleged, “Yogi ji is preparing a whole group of his own caste mafia under his patronage who will work for him personally. This is the character of this government, this party and the head of the government.” It said that the real impartiality of Mr. Adityanath would be proven only when he took action against criminals belonging to his caste.
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Earlier, the SP released a list of strongmen belonging to the Rajput community and asked why, despite dozens of criminal cases lodged against them, no decisive action had been taken. The list included former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, MLA Raja Bhaiya (Raghuraj Pratap Singh), Brijesh Singh, former MP Dhananjay Singh, MLC Vinit Singh and MP Brijbhushan Singh.
Also Read: Opposition parties slam the Uttar Pradesh Government over Atiq Ahmed’s killing
Earlier, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said that crime had reached its zenith in the State. “Crime has reached its peak in U.P. and the morale of the criminals is high. When someone can be killed in firing openly within the security cordon of the police, then what about the safety of the general public? Due to this, an atmosphere of fear is being created among the public, it seems that some people are deliberately creating such an atmosphere,” Mr. Yadav tweeted.
