Lucknow, Feb 5 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh unit chief Mahendra Nath Pandey on Tuesday slammed the Samajwadi Party for extending its support to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee in her stand-off with the Centre and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Questioning the criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, he said the opposition was like a "gang of corrupt" and rattled because of the ongoing investigations against them.

"These are the people of whom some are on bail, some on parole and the others on the verge of going into jail," Pandey claimed while reminding Akhilesh Yadav that while he is speaking of democracy, he himself was sitting in the lap of the Congress, which had sent socialist ideologues like Jai Prakash Narayan behind bars during the Emergency.

He also said that people who had undemocratically usurped power in their own party should not lecture others on democracy, referring to Akhilesh Yadav's takeover of his party.

He also attacked the opposition for alleging that the Modi government was trying to frame them through government agencies. "All these cases on which action was being taken had been filed during the UPA regime or have been directed by the Supreme Court or high courts," he said, while adding that all those who have plundered public money or misused their positions of power will have to pay for it.