Azam Khan  |  Photo Credit: PTI
Agra: As the Samajwadi Party fielded jailed party leader Azam Khan for Uttar Pradesh polls, the BJP hit out at the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and labelled it a party of “jail and bail”.
Gaurav Bhatia, BJP’s spokesperson, sought to know what compelled the Samajwadi Party to give party ticket to Khan from Rampur.
Khan, the incumbent Lok Sabha MP from Rampur, has been lodged in jail since February 2020 in several cases filed against him during the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.
Bhatia slammed the SP chief for nominating Khan for the next month’s poll “even when the court had denied him bail”.
He said the SP was deemed to be wiped off in the upcoming Assembly elections because the party stood for “lawlessness”.
“The crime rate in Uttar Pradesh during the SP government was at a high. We cannot forget the Jawahar Bagh incident in Mathura. Besides, riots used to be commonplace in Uttar Pradesh. The SP is a party of criminals. The mafias and dons used to consider themselves above the law. Now, they are under control and in fear,” Bhatia said.
“Earlier, Uttar Pradesh was a ‘BIMARU’ (word coined in 1980s and bears resemblance to Hindi word ‘bimar’ meaning sick) state. Now, it is becoming ‘Uttam’ (good) Pradesh,” he said.
Azam Khan recently moved the Supreme Court seeking interim bail to campaign in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections.
He said that the state has “adopted all means” available to purposefully delay the proceedings on his three remaining bail applications so as to ensure that the petitioner is incarcerated during the state Assembly elections scheduled to be held in Uttar Pradesh from February 10 to March 7 and cannot join in the election campaign for his party.
The SP leader further said that he has been granted bail in all other cases pending against him but proceedings in the three cases have been “purposefully” delayed.