Senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari on Sunday alleged that "mafia and criminals entered politics in Uttar Pradesh after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) formed an alliance to form the government in the state in 1996".
Speaking to the media, Congress leader charged, "In 1996 when the BJP-BSP formed government, 21 ministers were mafias with criminal backgrounds. The BJP is responsible for Mafiawad in UP. The BJP should be blamed for the criminalisation of politics in the state."
Tiwari said that the Union Minister for Defence Rajnath Singh had replied that everything is fair in politics when he was the Chief Minister after he had levelled the allegations of the BJP fielding criminals in politics in the state Assembly.
Polling for the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections is underway in Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabaki, Bahraich, Shrawasti, Gonda, Amethi and Raebareli.
As many as 692 candidates are in the fray in the fifth phase whose political fate will be decided by around 2.24 crore electorates. The polling will conclude at 6 pm today.
Congress contested 114 of 403 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. It had won only seven seats, securing 6.25 per cent of the total votes. In 2012, it had won 28 out of the 355 seats contested, securing 11.65 per cent of the total votes.
Polling for four phases of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections has already been concluded. Voting for the fifth phase is underway today. Polling for the remaining two phases will take place on March 3 and 6. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor