NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: The slugfest over buses for migrants continued with both Congress and BJP accusing each other of playing petty politics over the issue.
Hundreds of buses lined up at UP’s border with Delhi and Rajasthan returned on Wednesday after the Yogi Adityanath government denied them permission for entry despite Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s appeals to allow her party to ply the buses for migrants.
The BJP, on the other hand, accused her of “fake promise”.
Pointing out that the buses had been waiting for permission for 24 hours, Priyanka said in a video message, “If you want, do paste your (BJP) posters or banners on them, but kindly allow them to ply so that the migrants can be ferried in them and they reach home safely.”
This was not the time to play politics, she said, as she urged “every political party to set aside their political ideology and help people instead”.
Congress workers condemned the ‘shameless and cheap politics’ of the BJP and held protests. However, in a twist, Congress MLA from Rae Bareli Aditi Singh lashed out at her own party.
“Why this petty politics? A list of 1,000 buses was sent but more than half the buses were fake, 297 were defective, 98 were auto-rickshaws and ambulance-type cars and 68 vehicles were without registration papers,” she said.
UP’s Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma said of the 1,049 buses listed by the Congress, around 460 were found to be “fake”.
BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao accused Priyanka of passing off the buses provided by the Rajasthan government as those arranged by her family.
“For this fake promise she and the Congress should apologise to the people of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as well,” he said.