Assault on varsity staff slap on govt's face: Mayawati

Mayawati took a dig at Akhilesh Yadav and called him 'babua chief minister'

Lucknow, Dec 15: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Thursday said the alleged manhandling of staffers at an agri-university in Allahabad by Samajwadi Party candidate Atiq Ahmed was "a slap on the state government's face".

"The Chief Minister makes tall claims about law and order, and development but the entire nation knows that since this government came to power, 22 crore people of the state have been living under threat and fear of criminals," she alleged in a statement here.

Mafia don-turned-politician and candidate for the 2017 state Assembly polls, Ahmed was booked yesterday for allegedly assaulting Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHIATS) staffers, who opposed his unlawful entry along with supporters.

Harping on the incident, she took a dig at the Chief Minister over his claims of cutting down response time of the state police.

"The government has put up advertisements of 'UP-100' (the helpline number) cutting police response time to 20 minutes, and in this regard the 'goondagardi' of Atiq Ahmed in Allahabad, as reported by the media, is a slap on the SP government's face," she said.

Challenging the Chief Minister to send 'goonda' and mafia elements associated with his party to jail, Mayawati said if he had any faith in rule of law, he should give some respite to the people from the terror of criminals.

Referring to Akhilesh as a "babua chief minister", she said BBC (babua broadcasting corporation) has again said all the oft-repeated things in Bundelkhand today and warned Muslims not to fall prey to the SP designs and indirectly help the BJP.

PTI