BJP president JP Nadda on Sunday attacked Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, saying he took oath to protect the Constitution, but instead tried to protect terrorists.

He also accused the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and the BJP’s rivals in the state of patronising goons and the mafia.

Accusing Mr Yadav of “withdrawing cases of terrorists accused of bomb blasts”, Mr Nadda said, “The court did not spare these accused. The court said that you cannot withdraw the cases, these terrorists cannot be released. The terrorists, whom Akhilesh wanted to save, were sentenced by the court,” he said while addressing an election rally in the Shravasti assembly constituency on Sunday for party candidate Ram Pheran Pandey.

The BJP chief said that Mr Yadav took oath to protect the Constitution but he tried protecting terrorists.

Mr Nadda also claimed that the father of one of those convicted in the Ahmedabad blast case and who is a resident of Sanjarpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh, is campaigning for the Samajwadi Party.

Polls to the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly is being held in seven phases, and the third was held on Sunday. Polling in Shravasti will be held in the fifth phase.

Claiming that the mafia and goons ruled during the tenure of the previous government, which was led by Mr Yadav, the BJP chief said that Azam Khan, whom Mr Yadav used to call ‘sahab’, Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmed had a free run in during the previous government but are now in jail for the last five years.

They are in jail because Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is doing justice, while Mr Yadav did politics of appeasement, he said.

“The ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad) Centre in Deoband along with those at (coming up at) Meerut, Bahraich, Rampur, Azamgarh and Kanpur and will make UP fear-free under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath,” Mr Nadda said.

He told the gathering that “if you want to get employment and a fear-free Uttar Pradesh, then the only way for that is to vote for BJP candidates”.

Mr Nadda claimed that during the previous Akhilesh Yadav government, 200 riots took place in the state but in the last five years, there was not a single riot in Uttar Pradesh under the chief ministership of Mr Adityanath.

Taking a jibe at Yadav, he said that today elections were held in Karhal and his revered father –Mulayam Singh Yadav — had to go there to save him.