Taking a dig at the Samajwadi Party–Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance for the forthcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said: “Samajwadi Party chief Akhileshji yesterday remarked that he and RLD president Jayant Chaudhary were ‘saath-saath’ (together), but for how long?”
“If the government is formed, Jayant bhai will go and Azam Khan will sit (in his place). Jayant will not be seen with him (Akhilesh). Atiq Ahmed will also come. Why do you want to befool the people? The distribution of tickets shows what is going to happen in the future,” the Union minister said.
Previously, the BJP had reached out to Jayant Chaudhary, hinting that the saffron party’s doors were still open to him. “Jayant Chaudhary has chosen the wrong path… Possibilities are open even after the elections. We wanted him to come to us but he chose another house,” the BJP had said after a meeting with Jat leaders attended by Shah.
In the meantime, while addressing the voters in Muzaffarnagar, Shah also took a direct swipe at Yadav, alleging that the latter does not have “shame” while propagating “lies” about the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP government has chased away criminals and mafias who flourished during the previous regimes.
He said everyone in the state was concerned about security and the manner in which the mafia flourished during the SP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) governments and those doing politics in the name of caste and religion.
The home minister also reeled out comparative crime figures under the present Adityanath 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.
“All ‘goondas’ (hooligans) have run away from the boundary of Uttar Pradesh. As per our promise, the Yogi Adityanath government has chased away goondas and mafias. When Behenji’s party (BSP) came to power, it talked of one caste, the Congress talked of one family and Akhileshji of goondas, mafias and appeasement. But the BJP talked of security and development,” he pointed out.
The minister also highlighted that the number of kidnapping, murder and extortion cases have come down substantially in comparison with the time of the SP rule (2012-17).
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 could forget the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Alleging that the police acted with vote bank in mind during the riots, he said, “The victims were made the 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) in courts and 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, setting the target of winning over 300 seats in the northern state.
Muzaffarnagar had witnessed communal violence in 2013, killing over 60 persons and displacing 40,000 people.
Terming the ‘vote’ as the biggest power in democracy, Shah exhorted his audience to use it judiciously.
Claiming that security of the country was of topmost priority for the BJP government, the senior party leader said for 10 years, under the Sonia (Gandhi) and Manmohan (Singh) government, terrorists from across the Pakistan border came to India and killed security personnel.
“Can the SP, BSP and the Congress keep the country and the state safe?” he asked, adding that it was only the BJP under the leadership of Modi that could do it.
Shah also targeted the SP chief on the farmers’ issues. He said the SP and the BSP closed 21 of the total 42 sugar mills here.
“Whereas during our time, none was closed and payments to farmers were made. We have decided to announce in the BJP manifesto that in case of delay in clearance of payment, the interest will be realised from the sugar mills,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh minister Kapil Dev Aggarwal is BJP’s candidate from Muzaffarnagar, whereas SP-RLD alliance has fielded Saurabh Swarup from the seat.
Later in the day, though the home minister visited Deoband town in Saharanpur district for the party’s door-to-door campaigning, he had to return after a large number of supporters gathered there in violation of Covid-19 protocols.
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