Uttar Pradesh elections: SP can’t overcome ‘criminal mentality’, fielding rioters, says CM Yogi Adityanath

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath attacked the Samajwadi Party for not being able to overcome the “tamancha mentality” and giving tickets to criminals.
“In the last five years, our government has given a secure environment in the state which will not be allowed to end,” the CM told reporters.
Asked about SP president Akhilesh Yadav contesting elections and party giving tickets to criminals, Yogi said: “One thing is clear that after the release of the first list by SP, the party is on the backfoot.They are afraid of releasing the second list...they don’t have the courage.”
Yogi said Akhilesh has given tickets to rioters of Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and those responsible for the exodus of Hindus in Kairana. The CM said the SP and its leaders were still unable to come out of the criminal mentality.
“We made development, good governance and nationalism the agenda. The dynastic and family politics which prevailed in the state earlier not only encouraged nepotism and exploited the people of the state, the poor, farmers and the youth but it also created an environment of insecurity,” he said.
“Every third day a riot would break out in the state. Development automatically gets hampered if there is curfew anywhere. When dishonesty and corruption become part of your genes, you cannot achieve good governance even remotely,” he said.
“These dynasts and exponents of familialism did all this in the past,” Adityanath remarked as he attacked the SP, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
He said during his tenure as chief minister since 2017, criminals were either lodged in jail or had left the state and accused the SP, the BSP and the Congress of bringing back anti-social elements ahead of assembly polls by giving them tickets to fight elections.
He said SP has come on “backfoot” with its first list of candidates for the UP elections and now they cannot gather enough courage to release the second list.