Akhilesh Yadav visited the Azamgarh jail to meet party Samajwadi Party MLA Ramakant Yadav. (File)
Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati on Wednesday slammed Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for meeting a party MLA inside Azamgarh jail and alleged that it shows the party protects criminals.
She also targeted Mr Yadav for not offering the same support to party's jailed Muslim leaders.
Mr Yadav had visited the Azamgarh jail on Monday to meet party MLA Ramakant Yadav who is lodged there in a 20-year-old rioting case.
In a tweet in Hindi, Mayawati said, "The sharp reaction over the Samajwadi Party chief going to the Azamgarh jail and meeting imprisoned party MLA Ramakant Yadav to express sympathy is natural. This shows the general belief that the SP guards these types of criminal elements." Ms Mayawati accused Mr Yadav of not meeting party's jailed Muslim leaders.
"Also, is it unreasonable for various organisations and common people to ask the SP chief why he does not go to jail to meet Muslim leaders, when he has himself accused the BJP government in UP of implicating and putting SP leaders in jail for fake cases?" she tweeted.
She was apparently referring to Yadav's visit to Azamgarh jail in May when he skipped meeting Samajwadi Party's then jailed leader Azam Khan and met other party workers lodged there in connection with a case related to the assembly elections.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)