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UP polls: Nadda takes veiled swipe at Jayant for not using suffrage
The BJP’s attack on Chaudhary, who has allied with the opposition Samajwadi Party for the 2022 UP polls, has increased ever since the RLD leader spurned BJP’s offer of joining hands
In a veiled swipe at the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary for not casting his vote on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda said it reflected “dynastic arrogance” of the leader.
The BJP’s attack on Chaudhary, who has allied with the opposition Samajwadi Party for the 2022 UP polls, has steadily increased ever since the RLD leader spurned BJP’s offer of joining hands after leaving the SP.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his Saharanpur rally also took a veiled swipe at the RLD, saying that “those who earlier slammed the SP for Muzaffarnagar riots were standing with it now”, the BJP chief while addressing a rally in Sitapur trained guns on the Jat leader for not casting his vote.
“Today a leader didn’t cast his vote due to dynastic arrogance and that’s why it’s necessary to give answer to such people,” Nadda said at his rally. “I am a voter of Mathura and since I was campaigning in Bijnor, I will try to reach Mathura to cast my vote,” Jayant had said a little before the voting time ended.
Subsequently, the RLD cleared that Jayant was unable to cast his vote though his wife Charu did exercise her franchise. Mathura along with 10 other west UP districts went to poll in the first phase of assembly election on Thursday.
Like Nadda, UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also took potshots at Jayant without naming Jayant. “All I can say is that in democracy, each vote is important. Probably Akhilesh ji didn’t tell him or he didn’t realise the importance of vote. If people in politics don’t cast their vote, it does not set a good example. Or was it because he read the writing on the wall,” Maurya said.
The BJP, however, has not made any direct attack on RLD so far which some political experts notice could be part of the BJP’s plan to keep room for talks open for a possible post poll talk with Jayant – a line floated by some Jat leaders from western UP after their meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi on January 26.
That is why nearly all BJP leaders while launching a no-holds-barred attack on Akhilesh have largely preferred a veiled swipe at the RLD leader with even chief minister Yogi Adityanath limiting his attack on RLD with the term ‘do ladkon ki jodi’ (a team of two youths).
Jayant and Akhilesh have been taking “anna sankalp (grain pledge)” to connect with farmers in west UP and Nadda took potshots at the two by telling the audience that just as farmers know quality of grain by checking a few, he too makes an opinion on politicians after checking up on a couple of acts of theirs. He then urged the media to seek response from the SP chief on his charge that as chief minister he had tried to withdraw cases against suspected terrorists who were subsequently convicted by the court.
“The National Investigation Agency booked one Tariq Qasim from Azamgarh and Khalid Mujahid from Jaunpur for plotting the Gorakhpur blasts in 2007. Later, on becoming the chief minister Akhilesh on Azam Khan’s advice sought to withdraw the case against them but couldn’t due to the court turning down the move. Subsequently, Qasim was sentenced to life imprisonment,” Nadda alleged.
“Similarly, in CRPF camp attack case too, the NIA arrested seven persons but again Akhilesh ji on Khan’s advice sought to withdraw the case, a move that was turned down by the court. Eventually, four of the seven got a death penalty while the other three were sentenced for life. As chief minister you broke the oath you took as chief minister of protecting the constitution,” Nadda said while asking people if they would vote for such leaders.
