While addressing a public rally in Meerut Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath taking a jibe at BSP supremo Mayawati’s latest appeal to Muslim voters to not vote for the Congress said that “Agar Congress, SP, BSP ko ‘Ali’ par vishwaas hai toh humein bhi ‘Bajrangbali’ par vishwaas hai, roughly translated as “If Congress, SP and BSP trust Ali, we trust Bajragbali (Lord Hanuman)”.
#WATCH UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a public rally in Meerut, says, “Agar Congress, SP, BSP ko ‘Ali’ par vishwaas hai toh humein bhi ‘Bajrangbali’ par vishwaas hai.” pic.twitter.com/ZwI3L5ZEFt
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 9, 2019
Taking a dig at the SP-BSP alliance, Yogi Adityanath said that they are trying to woo the minority community as they know supporters of Bajrangbali won’t spare them in the elections. “Congress, BSP, SP knows the supporters of Bajrangbali won’t spare them in the elections. That’s why they are shouting ‘Ali, Ali’,” he said.
Recently in the first joint rally of Bahujan Samaj Party (SP) Supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav at Deoband in Saharanpur, Mayawati was seen openly polarising votes by asking Muslims not to split their vote between Congress and SP-BSP alliance and rather consolidate their vote in favour of the alliance candidate.
“Muslim samaj ke logo ko mai ye batana chahti hu, aap logo ko apna vote batna nahi hai. Aap logo ko apna vote Samajwadi Party aur RLD k ummeedvaro ko dekhar unke kamyab banana hai (I want to say this to the people of Muslim community that you should not spilt your vote. You should consolidate your vote in the favour of the candidates of SP and RLD and make them win)”, said Mayawati.
However, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has taken cognisance of Mayawati’s speech and sought a factual report from the Saharanpur administration.
“Seeking votes on the basis of religion or caste is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, and the matter will be probed by the Election Commission (EC),” an election official had said.
Earlier too Yogi Adityanath had made a similar remark targetting Congress for playing divisive politics. Last year, after a video went viral showing Congress leader Kamal Nath asking clerics to ensure 90 per cent voting in Muslim-dominated areas to secure victory for the party in Madhya Pradesh elections, Adityanath had said, “Aap Ali ko rakh lo….Hamare liye Bajrangbali kafi hain”.
Yogi Adityanath has on several occasions been extremely critical about Congress’ inclination for the minority community. Recently, he came down heavily on the Congress Party after scores of Muslim League flags were seen during Rahul Gandhi’s nomination yesterday from Wayanad constituency in Kerala. The flags belonged to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) which is an ally of the Congress in the United Democratic Front (UDF) and was involved in the infamous 2003 Marad Massacre in Kerala.
Calling the IUML a virus in a tweet, CM Yogi said that the Congress Party has been infected by this deadly virus. He warned that the virus would spread across the country if Congress comes to power.
He said that the whole country had fought along with freedom fighter Mangal Pandey against the British. But the virus of Muslim League spread across the country and eventually led to its partition. The country is facing the same danger today. He asked people to be aware of the virus of the Muslim League that has already infected Congress.
The Gandhi scion has filed his nomination from the ‘safe‘ Wayanad constituency in Kerala apart from his traditional seat of Amethi. In fact, many have commented on the significance that the Congress President had chosen to compete from a constituency where Hindus are in the minority. Even a party leader had made the admission on a sting tape that the great share of the Christian-Muslim vote in the electorate made the constituency very much a safe bet for Rahul, who heads a party which has had a history of playing caste-based politics.
