Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni on Monday cited “good law and order situation” in Uttar Pradesh as one of the reasons behind the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) massive win in the recently-concluded assembly elections. Speaking to news agency, Mishra, whose son is out on bail in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, said that the BJP would not have received the majority in assembly if the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh was not good.
“Had been saying from the beginning that the manner in which the central and state governments are working under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath, we will form the government again with majority,” news agency quoted Teni as saying.
“Had the law and order (in UP) not been good, we wouldn’t have received the majority,” the minister added.
The BJP won 255 seats in the 403-member UP assembly, with its allies, Apna Dal (Soneylal) and Nishad Party, also registering a strong performance. In Lakhimpur Kheri, the district where protesting farmers were run over by an SUV of Teni’s son Ashish Mishra, BJP won on all eight assembly constituencies.
Ashish Mishra is currently out on bail and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the plea against it on Tuesday. The petition challenging the bail order was filed by the families of three of the four protesting farmers who were mowed down by a convoy of cars. The incident was followed by more violence in which a journalist and three others were killed.
The Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana agreed to advance the hearing date to March 13 after advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned that there is some urgency as a witness in the case was attacked the previous night.