Yogi Adityanath govt has failed to maintain law and order, says Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav attacked Yogi Adityanath on Thursday over the “quick succession” of incidents of crime across Uttar Pradesh and said he would not ask the chief minister to resign but urge the people to dislodge him and his party.

“The police were prompt in tracking down and arresting the potato farmers (who threw potatoes outside Adityanath’s residence and Vidhan Sabha building) but are clueless about the back to back dacoities and crime incidents that have rattled the state,” the former chief minister said.

Akhilesh flashed pictures, books, reports to make his point while addressing a press conference at the party’s state headquarters in Lucknow.

“Will he (Yogi) resign if I ask. He won’t. There is no point in asking for his resignation when people are not getting justice,” he said.

Akhilesh said Adityanath had famously said that ‘pradesh ke apradhi pradesh chhod ke bahar chaley jaayein (Criminals in UP now must leave the state and go elsewhere). “What happened to this warning that Yogi had been issuing?” he asked.

He said there was no place in the state that is untouched by gory crimes. Robberies have been reported from the outskirts of Lucknow, an SP worker was beheaded in Azamgarh and incidents of crimes are happening unchecked in Meerut, Chitrakoot, and Varanasi.

“Investors will be terribly scared of coming to UP to invest. Let us see how he (Adityanath) eradicates that fear now,” he said.

Akhilesh was referring to the forthcoming UP Investors’ Summit scheduled on February 21 and 22 for which Adityanath and his colleagues have held roadshows in Mumbai and Hyderabad to make it a big draw.

The Samajwadi Party leader accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of posting officers who he said were engaged in pleasing their political masters instead of deploying good officers on important posts.

“The BJP’s leaders should recall their statements during the 2017 polls. They went around saying that police stations were being run by Samajwadis. Now, I ask who are running the police stations,” Akhilesh said.

Akhilesh said the government had made tall claims that encounters would improve the law and order situation in the state but instead of bringing about any change, questions are being raised about the extra-judicial killings by the police.

According to reports, 28 “criminals” have been killed in nearly 940 encounters till January 9 and about 3,900 have been arrested across the state since Adityanath assumed office on March 19 last year.

Akhilesh also accused the activists of the BJP of the violent protests against Bollywood period drama Padmaavat.