Akhilesh Yadav contests PM Modi's claim over crime in UP, asks him to check data

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim about the crime situation in Uttar Pradesh, asking him to check data of the Home Department and other central agencies.

At a function after laying the stone of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh, PM Modi earlier in the day said UP was run by gangsters and mafias before 2017. The Samajwadi Party (SP) was ruling the state then.

In a scathing attack at the BJP, Yadav told reporters at a press conference here that it is good to set up a university but the party "runs the best training centre of telling lies".

He asked the BJP to pick "bulldozer" as its election symbol, referring to the alleged demolition of houses of some Ayodhya residents.

Yadav also asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to get his eyesight tested, replying to the CM’s assertion that the Opposition leader lacked vision.

Yadav told reporters that the UP government is not working according to the law and warned officials that his party is preparing a list of those who violated the law, stressing that they won’t be spared once his party’s government comes to power.

When his attention was drawn to the PM’s comment over the law and order, Yadav said, "He should ask for the data of the Home Department or Dial 100 to see who is increasing the crime."

He asked the PM to go through the NCRB report and also see which state has been served maximum notices by the National Human Rights Commission.

Yadav said the PM should also ask the Uttar Pradesh CM who are the top 10 mafia in the state.

All are aware how the CM withdrew cases against himself, he said.

He also accused the ruling party of failing to honour its own leaders, referring to the foundation laying of a university after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lucknow in 2019 and asked about its status.

He alleged that the government uses the work of other governments to honour its own leaders and assured that if his party came to power, they will set up a university or college at Vajpayee's native Bateshwar village in Agra .

"Even after over four years, this government is changing names and colours, claiming the work done by the SP government as its own. As they know that their government is on its way out, the language of its head has changed," the SP chief said, apparently referring to CM Yogi's "Abba Jaan" jibe in Kushinagar recently.

He said a few years ago when the CM had gone to Kushinagar, children and the poor were given soaps and shampoos to first take a bath and then meet him.

Such a person cannot develop the state, he said.

To Yogi's assertion that Akhilesh Yadav lacked vision, the SP leader asked the CM to get his eyesight tested.

He also suggested that the BJP should pick "bulldozer" as its election symbol after two Ayodhya residents from the Ramkot area told him that their houses were razed by the administration.

Maniram Yadav told the former CM that they have been living in the area for the past three generations and believed that their "achchey din" will come once the Ram temple is constructed but now "feel like committing suicide".

Countering claims of the state government that unauthorised buildings have been demolished, the former CM said there are many houses, specially very old ones that do not have layouts passed by the authorities, citing the example of the official residence of the CM in Lucknow.

He assured that once his party comes to power, it will restore the dignity of those whose houses have been demolished by building new ones for them.

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