lucknow bahujan samaj party bsp chief mayawati on thursday came out in support of samajwadi party sp mla azam khan accusing the uttar pradesh government of acting out of malice against the veteran leader she said that the case of azam khan who has been kept behind the bars for more than two years is a case of denial of justice she hit out at the state government for acting maliciously against its political opponentsin a series of tweets the bsp chief said that the governments in the bjpruled states similar to the congress were targeting dalits tribals muslims and poor people and committing atrocities on themthe way the governments in several states are acting out of illwill against migrants and others who work hard for livelihood under the excuse of encroachment and depriving them of their means of livelihood is a matter of extreme concern and also raises several questions she saidmayawati speaking in favour of khan at a time when the samajwadi party national president akhilesh yadav has been criticised by many for not coming out in the support of the senior muslim leader fof his party is not without political connotationsalmost immediately after the results for the up assembly election 2022 were declared the bsp national president had directed her party cadre to reach out to muslims along with the nonjatav dalits obcs and others who strayed to other parties muslims she said voted en masse for the samajwadi party adding that they muslims are repenting their decision already because sp could still not winazams affair gained centrestage after pspl leader shivpal yadav met him in sitapur jail recently and said akhilesh yadav has not done much for the khans cause later it was azams tweet which brought out his angst and also anger though indirectly against akhilesh yadavafter this though akhilesh yadav has hit out at the yogi government for its malicious actions against azam khan the issue has acquired a bigger dimnesion with archrival mayawati too voicing support for the jailed veteran leader