Controversial hoardings targeting Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav surfaced at a busy crossing in Lucknow on Friday, featuring images of slain gangster-politicians Atiq Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari alongside jailed senior party leader Mohammad Azam Khan, ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.According to ANI, the hoardings appeared at the National PG College crossing and carried a rhyming Hindi slogan aimed at the SP.The poster read, “Sapaiyon ka kya bharosa — Chai, samosa, rasmalai, saare mafia apne bhai”, alleging links between the party and criminal figures. The identity of those who put up the hoardings was not immediately known.The poster featured Akhilesh Yadav wearing a white prayer cap, alongside photographs of Atiq Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari and Azam Khan. The hoardings surfaced a day after Yadav visited Rampur district jail to meet Azam Khan, drawing criticism from the ruling

Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) and its allies, who accused the SP of political opportunism and patronising criminal elements.Akhilesh Yadav backs Azam Khan, targets BJPAfter meeting Khan on October 22, Yadav accused the BJP government of targeting the senior SP leader and his family through what he described as fabricated cases. He also alleged that the government had deliberately damaged Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur.

“I have just met with Azam Khan, and he will receive justice. I inquired about his well-being, and we discussed how the university has been ruined,” Yadav said.

He further alleged that Khan's family had faced an exceptional degree of political persecution.“As for the injustice inflicted, perhaps in all of political history, no other family has faced as many false cases as the family of Azam Khan,” he said.