Lucknow, March 20 (IANS): The Samajwadi Party is drawing severe criticism for its post on social media in which it has given the Badaun incident a "communal" twist and blamed the Uttar Pradesh government for attempting to "communalise" the situation.

In a post on X, the SP media cell alleged that the ruling party wanted to create communal tension, and the Badaun incident was proof of it.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya gave a stinging reply to the tweet and said, "The Samajwadi Party has no morality left --if it had, it would not have done politics on the Badaun incident. Everyone knows about the links between SP and criminals. The Badaun incident is horrific and the police is taking action in the matter. I appeal to the people to maintain peace."

SP leader Shivpal Yadav, however, termed the incident as unfortunate but he appreciated the follow up action taken by the district administration in which one of the accused was shot dead within two hours.

He said, "The police should now arrest the second accused and unravel the reason behind the two murders."

Meanwhile, the SP media cell tweet has drawn considerable flak by netzines on the social media.