Kairana bypoll: Yogi Adityanath addresses rally ahead of by-election, accuses Samajwadi Party of patronising criminals

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday lashed out at the Samajwadi Party (SP) and accused it of patronising criminals and communal forces when it was in power in the state.

File image of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. PTI

Addressing an election rally in Kairana, ahead of the 28 May Lok Sabha bypoll, Adityanath said the previous SP regime was tainted with the Muzaffaranagar riots and pointed out how criminals were running for their lives under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule.

He said that the state government had zero tolerance towards crime and graft and that his government would deal with people and groups who try to disrupt the communal harmony in the state with a firm hand.

"Our government is relentlessly working for the welfare of the farmers and the poor... Electricity is being provided for 18 hours and adequate price for their crop is being paid," he said.

Stressing that his government had the poor and the marginalised at the centre of its policies, the chief minister also announced that the government was going to create three lakh jobs for the unemployed youth of the state.

He said that for the welfare of farmers, the licence system for installing sawing machine had been simplified. It had also been warned that people who exploit farmers would be sent to jail.

The BJP leader said that his government would also ensure early and full payment of the cane growers' arrears.

Speaking at the rally, Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the government had ensured pothole-free roads, and predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would return to power with a bigger mandate in 2019, winning more than 73 of the 80 parliamentary seats in the state.

Voting for the Kairana parliamentary seat in western UP will be held on 28 May. The seat was vacated following the death of senior BJP leader and incumbent minister Hukum Singh. The BJP has fielded his daughter Mriganka Singh, and Tabassum Hasan, who though is a SP member is fighting on a Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ticket.

After the Gorakhpur and Phulpur experiments, where an alliance between the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), led to humiliating defeats for the ruling party, the SP, BSP, Congress, RLD and the Nishad Party have come together to back Hasan.