Lucknow: Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh municipal elections, the recent murder of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf has heated up the political atmosphere in the state. With less than a week left for the first phase of civic polls, the Samajwadi Party chief and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, in an exclusive conversation with India TV, has said that gangsters Atiq and his brother's murder was a pre-planned conspiracy.
Atiq and Ashraf were killed under police protection, says Akhilesh Yadav
Speaking to India TV, Akhilesh Yadav said, “The murder was executed when Atiq and Ashraf were under police escort. The witness Umesh Pal was also killed in police custody and the one against whom the allegations were made was also killed in police protection.”
Yadav said that before this murder, Atiq and Ashraf were made to walk and paraded by the police. Even Supreme Court has raised questions regarding this.
BJP wants to take advantage by inciting riots, alleges Akhilesh
The killing of Atiq and Ashraf seems to be a big conspiracy... the government officials had done ‘reiki’ and only after that they were killed, Akhilesh Yadav said.
The SP chief further said that BJP wanted to take advantage by deteriorating the situation and inciting riots in the state. He said that whenever there is a riot, the BJP takes advantage... but the maturity of the society did not allow the atmosphere to deteriorate.
Yogi govt stopped development work, says Akhilesh
Akhilesh Yadav said that the state government is not talking about the issues necessary to win the local body elections. He said that when the Samajwadi Party was in power, many development works were done. Now, instead of doing any work, they have even stopped the work done by our government. They are just busy in doing Hindu-Muslim politics to spread hatred in society. The incidents of crime, loot, theft and rape are increasing in the state, but the government is not paying attention to it.
Uttar Pradesh local body elections
Voting for the urban local body polls is scheduled for May 4 and 11. The 37 districts of Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Devipatan, Gorakhpur and Varanasi divisions would go to polls in the first phase. Meerut, Bareilly, Aligarh, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Shahjahanpur and Ghaziabad will also go to polls on May 11. The Counting of votes will take place on May 13.
The election would be held for 17 seats of mayor, 1,420 seats of corporator, 199 seats of nagar palika parishad chairperson, 5,327 of nagar palika parishad member, 544 of nagar panchayat chairperson and 7,178 seats of nagar panchayat member. The politically crucial northern state sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
