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Karnataka elections: Yogi steps into poll campaign arena as BJP and Congress step up attacks
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday attacked the Congress over religion-based reservation and accused it of appeasement, as he kicked off his first rally in poll-bound Karnataka
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday attacked the Congress over religion-based reservation and accused it of appeasement, as he kicked off his first rally in poll-bound Karnataka.
The southern state goes to the polls on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.
Adityanath claimed that no riots took place in Uttar Pradesh in the past six years due to the strong “double engine government” — a reference used by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders to highlight party-led governments at the Centre and in the state.
“Congress appeases the Popular Front of India (PFI) and gives religion-based reservation, which is against the Indian Constitution,” Adityanath said while addressing a rally in Mandya, considered the Vokkaliga heartland and stronghold of the Janata Dal (Secular).
He was referring to the 4% reservation for Muslims under 2B category of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), which the BJP government has scrapped and distributed equally among the Vokkaliga and Lingayat castes. Its implementation, however, has been put on hold till May 9, when the issue will be next heard in the Supreme Court.
“India was divided on religious lines in 1947. The country cannot endorse religion-based reservation and we are not ready for another partition,” Adityanath said, adding that the BJP governments at the Centre and Karnataka banned the PFI and had broken the back of the Islamist organisation.
“In Uttar Pradesh, security and prosperity is guaranteed. There is no curfew and riots. All is well there. In the past six years, no riots took place in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
On Wednesday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who addressed a poll campaign in Hubli-Dharwad West, said the grand old party has educated everyone, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi keeps asking what has the Congress done in 70 years. If he looks around, he will see what our party has done,” Kharge, who is a Rajya Sabha member from the poll-bound state, said. “We have built dams, public sector undertakings. We have provided education, healthcare and employment opportunities for all. When the country got independence, literacy level was around 16%. Now, it is around 70%. Who made people literate? Who educated all the doctors, engineers, scientists, teachers and lawyers all these years? Congress educated everyone, including Modi.”
