War of Words in UP Elections: 'They're short of hitting century', Akhilesh Yadav's response to BJP

LUCKNOW: In a tit-for-tat response to Bharatiya Janata Party's Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath's remarks pertaining to giving tickets to criminals and offenders, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has alleged that the BJP has, so far, fielded 99 candidates with a criminal history for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections.

"The BJP is short of hitting a century. They have given tickets to 99 criminals," said Yadav said in a tweet on Sunday.

The war of words between the SP and BJP has been rapidly escalating on the issue of criminals contesting the elections in the assembly polls.

While the BJP has been accusing Akhilesh Yadav and his party of patronising persons with criminal backgrounds, Akhilesh has returned the fire by demanding to know the number and status of cases against the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said during his tours in the state that if the SP comes to power, there will be a reign of criminals in the state.

In an apparent dig at Uttar Pradesh's law and order situation under SP, Shah said that ever since Yogi came into power, the criminals of the state are either in jail or in Samajwadi Party.

Yogi Adityanath, meanwhile has said that when he returns to power after the Assembly elections, he would continue with his bulldozer policies against criminals.

Uttar Pradesh will go to poll in seven phases from February 10 to March 10. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.