Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh had a war of words over running 1000 buses for migrant workers to ferry them back home as the state government set a condition to send all the buses to Lucknow, leading to a letter altercation.

Now the state administration has written another letter to Gandhi asking her to send  500 buses each to Noida and Ghaziabad that come in the NCR region, on Tuesday, reported NDTV.

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Priyanka Gandhi’s office alleged that the move is politically motivated. The state government in a late night  letter to Gandhi has demanded that the 1,000 buses be handed over state capital Lucknow this morning, with fitness certificates and driving licenses of all bus drivers.

Sandeep Singh, Priyanka Gandhi’s private secretary said a letter was received from the UP official at 11.40 am via email, in which it has been stated that 1,000 buses with all documents be handed over at Lucknow by 10 am on Tuesday.

“In a situation when thousands of workers are walking on the streets and thousands of people have gathered at the UP borders at various registration centres, sending 1,000 empty buses to Lucknow is not only a waste of time and resources but is also inhuman and the product of an anti-poor mindset,” Singh wrote( in Hindi).

“This demand of your government seems politically motivated. It does not seem that your government wants to help our labourer brothers and sisters who are facing a disaster,” the letter said.

A day after 24 migrant workers were killed and 36 injured in an accident due to a trailer rammed a stationary truck, both carrying migrant workers, on a highway near Auraiya in UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on May 16 had appealed to the UP CM for allowing Congress to run 1000 buses for the migrant workers.

“Respected chief minister, I am requesting you, this is not the time for politics. Our buses are standing at the border. Thousands of labourers and migrants are walking towards their homes without food or water and after fighting all troubles. Let us help them. Give permission to our buses,” she had said.

“Our buses are standing at the border. Thousands of nation-builders workers and migrants are walking in the sun. Give permission Yogi Adityanath ji. Let us help our brothers and sisters,” she said in another tweet.

Priyanka Gandhi had also put a video showing buses stationed in Rajasthan to ferry migrant workers to back home but due to denial of permission from the UP government, they were not able to move.

Awanish Awasthi, Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Home) had written to Congress leader on Monday accepting her proposal to deploy 1000 buses for migrants. He also seeks details of the  buses, their numbers and names of drivers and conductors without delay.

Subsequently, Singh had given details of the buses and its drivers to the UP government in an email.

“All details of the 1,000 buses are attached with this e-mail. Out of them, a few drivers will be reverified and those details will also be mailed to you in a few hours. I hope you will give permission for those buses to ply as soon as possible,” Singh had said in the communication to the UP government on Monday.

Priyanka Gandhi had thanked CM Yogi Adityanath on Twitter for accepting the proposal.

“Thank you for allowing us to run 1,000 buses at the expense of the Congress to help thousands of brothers and sisters walking on the roads in Uttar Pradesh,” she had tweeted in Hindi.

She had said the Congress will stand with these people during the difficult time they face.

In a television interview earlier on Monday, Adityanath accused the Congress of playing politics over the plight of migrant workers.

Singh in his letter on Tuesday also expressed surprise at the chief minister, saying his government was demanding the details of buses since the last three days and asserted that the details were provided immediately after the letter from the UP government was received in this regard.

The state has 4605 positive cases of COVID-19 with 118 fatalities reported so far, according to health ministry’s data.