Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday stepped up his attack on the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), saying the alliance between the two parties for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will last only till the counting of votes.
In Muzaffarnagar to address a voters’ meeting, Shah said that if the SP forms the government this time, Azam Khan will be a part of the Cabinet and RLD president Jayant Chaudhary will be out.
“Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary held a press conference yesterday and said that they are together. But for how long will this alliance last? If SP forms the government in UP, Jayant bhai will be removed and Azam Khan will come back. The people should understand from the distribution of tickets what will happen next,” he said.
“Earlier SP-BSP ruled in UP and when Behenji’s (Mayawati; BSP President) would come here, she would talk about one caste. When Congress came, they talked about family and when Akhilesh babu would come, he would talk about goondas, mafia and appeasement,” Shah added.
Highlighting the performance of the Yogi Adityanath government in the state and taking a swipe at the Samajwadi Party at the same time, Shah, speaking at Saharanpur, said, “Under Yogi sarkaar, mafia is now only in three places — in jails, outside UP or else in the candidate list of the Samajwadi Party.”
Seeking support for the saffron party in western Uttar Pradesh, Shah invoked eminent Jat leader late prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and farmers’ leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, and asked if anyone can forget the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots during which victims were made accused. The home minister also reeled out comparative crime figures under the present Yogi Adityanath-led state government and the one headed by Yadav before him, and dared the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief to come out with the statistics of his governance.
Addressing the ‘matdaataas’ (voters) here, Shah referred to the Muzaffarnagar riots during the Samajwadi Party rule. Alleging that police acted with vote bank in mind during the riots, he said, “The victims were made accused and accused the victims, and thousands of fake cases were lodged. I congratulate the BJP which acted under party leader Sanjeev Baliyan and fought the ‘nyay ki ladai’ (fight for justice) either in courts or on the roads.” “I want to ask the people of Muzaffarnagar and of western Uttar Pradesh if they have forgotten the riots? If the same mistake is done, then those who instigated the riots will sit on the seat of power in Lucknow, but if lotus’ (BJP party symbol) is elected, there will be no riots,” he said, giving the target of winning over 300 seats in the northern state.
He also highlighted that figures of kidnapping, murder and extortion have come down substantially in comparison with the time of SP rule (2012-17). Terming vote as the biggest power in democracy, Shah exhorted his audience to use it judiciously.
“If it (vote) goes to SP and BSP, there will again be mafia raj’ and if it goes to the BJP, it will help Uttar Pradesh become number one state in the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership,” he said.
Claiming that security of the country was topmost priority for the BJP government, the senior party leader said for 10 years, it was the Sonia (Gandhi) and Manmohan (Singh) government with SP and BSP when terrorists from across Pakistan border came this side and killed our security personnel, but the leadership in Delhi was not affected in the lure of vote bank.
“Can the SP, BSP and Congress keep the country and the state safe?” he asked, adding that it is only the BJP under the leadership of Modi that can do it. Shah also targeted the SP chief on the farmers issue. He said there were 42 sugar mills, of which 21 mills were closed by the SP and BSP.
Shah’s comments come a day after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his ally, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, launched a scathing attack on the BJP’s claim of the exodus of Hindus from Kairana and the party’s post-poll alliance offer to Chaudhary. “Who is accepting their invitation? Imagine the condition they are in that they are compelled to invite!” Chaudhary said.
Uttar Pradesh minister Kapil Dev Aggarwal is BJP’s candidate from Muzaffarnagar, whereas SP-RLD alliance has fielded Saurabh Swarup from the seat.
For the BJP, which faces the ‘Jat challenge’ in other parts of western UP like Muzzafarnagar, Shamli and Bagpat, Saharanpur therefore assumes great importance. Through Shah, BJP will not just hope of retaining the Deoband seat, but will also aim for influencing the nearby constituencies. Before 2017, BJP had last won Deoband only in 1996.
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