UP Election 2022: One Who Built A University In Jail, One Who Killed Farmers Out On Bail, Says Akhilesh Yadav

UP Election 2022: Akhilesh also asserted that voting in the first phase of UP polls had given adequate number of signs that BJP would be cleared out from the state.

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav (File photo: AFP)

New Delhi: Taking a dig at the BJP, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said while Azam Khan was in jail for building a university, a Union Minister's son was out on bail in a case related to the killing of farmers.

He was alluding to Ashish Misra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Misra, who got bail in the Lakhimpur Kheri case.

Akhilesh Yadav made the remark in Rampur, where he was campaigning for Azam Khan. Khan, the Muslim face of the Samajwadi Party, is currently in jail. 

Akhilesh also asserted that voting in the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls had given adequate number of signs that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be cleared out from the state.

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday granted bail to Ashish Misra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case where eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

"Even if the BJP performs 700 squats, the farmers will not forgive the party," Akhilesh Yadav said. He said Khan's son Abdullah Azam had to languish in jail for two years on false cases.

"Azam Khan was also sent to jail on false charges. Cases of buffalo theft, chicken theft, and theft of books were lodged against him. But the man who crushed farmers under the wheels of a jeep has come out of jail. This is the new India of the BJP," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

"The man who built a university for you, fought for your rights and honour, was sent to jail. And the man who crushed farmers using a jeep has been sent out of jail. Nowhere in the world, farmers have been crushed by a jeep. But since the Uttar Pradesh polls are here, he has got bail and is out," he said.

Azam Khan got the Jauhar University built in Rampur. He is at present lodged in the Sitapur prison on different charges.

The SP has fielded Khan from the Rampur Assembly segment and his son from the Suar constituency in the district. Rampur will vote on February 14.

"People were waiting for March 10 for the election results, but the way voting took place in the first phase (on Thursday), it seems that the results were out by yesterday evening," Akhilesh said.

"In the first phase of polling, people from different sections of the society including farmers, have wiped out the BJP and whatever is left (of the party), will be wiped out in the second phase from Saharanpur to Rampur," he further said.

Akhilesh also said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had been claiming that he had distributed laptops among youths. "Yet, not a single laptop has been given to anybody in Rampur," he said.

"BJP leaders lie a lot. The first time they had lied was during demonetisation, when they had said the move will curtail corruption. Corruption could not be curtailed, but it doubled during the double-engine government," he said in a reference to the saffron party being in power both at the Centre and in the state and urged people to vote for the SP-RLD alliance.

(With PTI inputs)