In an apparent attack on Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya over his remarks on the Allahabad High Court's order on assistant teachers' recruitment, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said those who cause pain cannot offer succour.

Following the court's order, the opposition parties have been accusing the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh of "playing with the reservation system".

In a post on X in Hindi, the Samajwadi Party chief alleged that the "favoured deputy chief minister" is part of the government that snatched reservation from the youth. When they got justice after a long fight, he came forward to portray himself as sympathetic to their cause, he said.

Hitting back at Akhilesh Yadav for his remarks, Maurya alleged the "Congress' pawn 'SP Bahadur's PDA is a big lie".

'PDA' is an acronym for "picchde, Dalit and alpsankhyak" (backwards, Dalit and minorities) coined by Yadav in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections and battling for their rights was a major poll plank of the Samajwadi Party.

The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to prepare a fresh selection list for the appointment of 69,000 assistant teachers within three months, setting aside the lists issued in June 2020 and January 2022 which included 6,800 candidates.

The bench also revised the earlier order and said the reserved category candidates who qualify for the general category merit list should be migrated to that category. In addition, the benefit of vertical reservation should also be extended to horizontal reservation categories, it said.

In a post on X on Saturday, Maurya said, "The decision of the Allahabad High Court in the recruitment of teachers is a welcome step towards social justice. This is the victory of those backward category people and Dalits who fought a long battle for their rights. I welcome them wholeheartedly." Yadav accused Maruya of playing political cards.

"Those who cause pain cannot offer succour! The statement of a 'favoured deputy chief minister' of Uttar Pradesh in the 69,000 teacher recruitment case is also conspiratorial. He was part of the government which snatched reservation and when the youth fought against it and got justice after a long struggle, he came forward to show himself as sympathetic," the SP president said.

"Actually, this 'favoured deputy chief minister' is not with the candidates and is playing his political cards within the BJP. The 'honourable' people at whom he is indirectly pointing fingers in this matter are also understanding this game of internal politics," Yadav said.

The BJP should keep education and the youth away from its infighting and "negative politics", he added.

Maurya, in his post, said, "The Samajwadi Party has become an automatic machine of telling lies. Just like it propagated in the Lok Sabha elections that the constitution will be abolished, similarly they are spreading the lie of PDA. BJP is the present, BJP is the future, will repeat 2017 in 2027." In its order, the high court asked the state government to ensure that while preparing the new selection list, any adverse impact on the currently employed assistant teachers should be mitigated by allowing them to complete the ongoing academic session.

This is intended to prevent disruption in education, it said.

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