The hoarding/poster war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and its rivals escalated on Saturday as after Samajwadi Party, now the Congress put up posters of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other ruling party leaders with respective “criminal histories”.
A day earlier, a SP leader had put up hoardings cautioning parents against rape accused BJP leaders Swami Chinmayanand and Kuldeep Singh Sengar who has been expelled from the party.
The Congress posters were pasted at the gates of BJP state office in Lucknow and next to hoardings with pictures of anti-CAA protesters put up by Lucknow district administration and police in Hazratganj for their role in violence in Lucknow on December 19, 2019.
The posters maintained that recovery for damage to public property should start with the chief minister as he was also an accused in Gorakhpur riots.
The Congress posters also highlighted five cases against Yogi Adityanath which include sections 147, 148, 295, 153 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
The posters were reportedly put up by Sudhanshu Bajpai and Laalu Kannaujia, who claimed to be Congress workers.
Subsequently, an FIR was lodged against Sudhanshu Bajpai, Laalu Kannaujia, unidentified printing press owner and others under Section 505 (1) (b) of IPC and Public Property Act at the Hazratganj police station.
Speaking to reporters in Lucknow on Saturday, UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said, “The posters were put up by party workers and there is absolutely nothing wrong in them. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is a member of the Legislative Council but it seems that he thinks himself to be a judge. Yogi himself is an accused in riots, so he should put up his posters first and compensate losses to government and public property.”
“Charity begins at home. Hence, recovery should start with Yogi and BJP leader Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, who were accused in Gorakhpur riots. I have said it before that those accused in riots should be treated in similar manner. BJP leaders like Sangeet Som, Suresh Rana, Sadhvi Prachi, Umesh Malik and Sanjeev Balyan were also accused in Muzaffarnagar riots. What is more, as per his affidavit submitted before Lok Sabha polls, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is also an accused in 11 cases, including those of riots,” Lallu said.
Reacting to the Congress posters, BJP leader and UP minister Suresh Rana, whose picture also figures in the posters, said, “It seems that Congress is rattled by the action taken by the state government against rioters. They ask for proof of Balakot airstrike and visit the house of rioters. The Congress cannot digest the fact that law and order is improving in Uttar Pradesh and hence it has resorted to such politics.”
On Thursday, the Supreme Court told the Yogi government that its decision to put up hoardings identifying anti-CAA protesters had no backing of law but stopped short of passing any interim order and slated the mater for hearing next week by a three-judge bench.
The apex court is hearing an appeal filed by the UP government challenging the March 9 order of Allahabad High Court directing the state to remove posters of those accused of vandalism during anti-CAA protests.
On Monday, the High Court had ordered Lucknow’s district magistrate and police commissioner to remove the ‘name-and-shame’ hoardings immediately and submit a report by March 16, the next date of hearing.