LUCKNOW, April 21 -- Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has alleged that Uttar Pradesh has become the number one state in the country in terms of atrocities against Dalits under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

He levelled the allegation in a statement issued on Monday. "The question is why only those states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, which are ruled by the BJP, are involved in most of the crimes against Dalits, especially women," the statement said.

"The BJP government is not only snatching away reservation and freedom, but now the power-protected dominant, strongmen and goons are taking lives," the SP chief alleged. "The murder of a Dalit youth in Prayagraj for ref...