UP Deputy CM Maurya calls Priyanka Gandhi Vadra a 'Twitter waali Neta'

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was derided as "Twitter waali neta (Twitter politician)" on Wednesday by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. He was reacting sharply to the Congress leader's recent criticism over UP topping in the chart of crimes against women. The State registered 56,011 such cases in 2017, according to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau on Monday.

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"She is 'Twitter wali neta'. Recently, she went after facilitating her brother's defeat in the Amethi Lok Sabha seat. What she says doesn't matter. What matters is we are taking steps to strengthen law and order," said Maurya.

Stung by Priyanka Vadra's stinging attack on Tuesday, Maurya said, "The opposition does not have any issue. The reality is there is fear among the criminals. I would not comment on the numbers. We are acting strictly on crime and taking all steps to control these incidents."

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Priyanka targets Yogi Govt

On Tuesday, Priyanka said, “The State is at the top in crimes against women. It is shameful and the Chief Minister must do something about it,” before chairing a three-day workshop for the newly elected Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) members. Priyanka Gandhi, who is in her mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli, told reporters that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should do something to address the matter.

In a tweet later, the Congress leader said, "The highest number of crimes against women in the country is taking place in UP. More than 56,000 a year and this does not include incidents that are not reported (to police). Is this data not serious enough for the chief minister to take cognizance."

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NCRB data

According to the data, over 3.5 lakh cases of crime against women were registered in the country, of which the maximum cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh (56,011), which is also the country's most populous state. Refuting the claims made by Priyanka Gandhi, a government spokesperson, in a statement issued in Lucknow on Tuesday, accused the opposition of "manipulating" the NCRB data. "The opposition especially Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Akhilesh Yadav are trying to derive political mileage without proper study of it." He added that to understand the NCRB statistics, the ratio should be calculated based on the population. He also said that states with a higher population also have higher occurrence and registration of crime.

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(With ANI inputs)