Shiv Sena fires barb at UP CM Yogi; alleges 'vote-bank' hypocrisy over migrants' return

A day after Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath slammed the opposition parties, accusing them of attempting to misuse migrant workers' situation for their 'narrow political' gains, the Shiv Sena has hit back. In an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana on Wednesday, Shiv Sena alleged that CM Yogi and other UP leaders want the migrant labourers from Maharashtra and Gujarat in their states only during the elections but at the time of crisis, they do not want to accept them back. 

'Different rules for the rich and poor'

In its editorial, Sena, which is in power in Maharashtra claimed that there are around 30-35 lakh migrant workers in the state, out of which at least 25 lakhs are stranded in Mumbai. The editorial said that even in Surat, these workers are getting desperate to return to their homeland but they are helpless.

"The Yogi government has different set of rules for the rich and the poor. They sent buses to bring back students from Kota and they were accepted without being tested for Covid-19 just because they are the children of rich people? whereas the UP Government refuses to accept these labourers in the state if they are not tested," the editorial said.

The Shiv Sena said that asking people to return from where they came from at the border is a thing which can happen between two nations but it is unacceptable for two states in the same country to behave in the same way adding that the UP government should show some humanity and accept them.

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According to news agency PTI, Over 1,000 migrant workers arrived Lucknow on Tuesday morning in a special train from Maharashtra's Akola district where they were stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown. On Monday, over 3,000 labourers stuck in Maharashtra were brought to Uttar Pradesh in three special trains. On Sunday, over 2,000 workers arrived from Maharashtra and Gujarat.

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Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation MD Raj Shekhar said 54 buses were deployed to take 1,195 Akola workers to districts of Jalaun, Kannauj, Allahabad, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Jaunpur on Tuesday. Earlier briefing reporters in Lucknow, Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Awasthi had said so far, nearly 65,000 labourers and students have been brought to the state or sent to other places.

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