The Samajwadi Party blamed the CM for irregularities in recruitment of assistant teachers.
The Lucknow police broke up a candlelight march by a group of people holding a sustained protest over alleged irregularities in a 2019 Uttar Pradesh exam to recruit 69,000 assistant teachers in the state. A group of protestors was trying to march from a prominent intersection in central Lucknow towards the residence of the state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath when the police lathi-charged them to break up the protest.
The Samajwadi Party has posted a video of the incident on its social media handle, the short clip shows police beating up a group of people and chasing after them while they run away. "The CM who denied backward-Dalit reservation in the hiring of 69,000 teachers is now getting them beaten up," the party tweeted, condemning the "brutal lathicharge" by the police on "peaceful protestors".
Sharing a video, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi: "The UP government lathi-charged those seeking employment- Remember when BJP comes to ask for votes!"
The Uttar Pradesh government held a major examination in 2019 to recruit 69,000 assistant school teachers, but the entire process has since faced allegations of irregularities, including on allocation of quotas within the merit list of those who got selected in the exam. Protests over the exam have been going on for two years especially from Scheduled Caste and OBC candidates who appeared for it.