Uttar Pradesh polls: Akhilesh Yadav has drawn flak for his recent statement in which he equated Muhammad Ali Jinnah with Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, saying they helped India get freedom.
Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reached Azamgarh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s constituency, on Saturday. Hitting out at the Opposition party, Shah stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party has brought in JAM – which stands for ‘Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile’ but for SP, it stands for ‘Jinnah, Azam Khan and Mukhtar (Ansari)’.
Shah went on to state that “with elections approaching, Akhilesh Yadav has started seeing greatness in Jinnah”.
Yadav had recently equated Jinnah with Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Mahatma Gandhi, saying they had helped India achieve Independence and never shied away from any struggle. This had prompted criticism from several leaders, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath calling it “a Talibani mentality.”
Endorsing CM Adityanath, the Home minister stated that he had freed Purvanchal from both mosquitoes and ‘mafia-raj’.
He added that the CM had brought an end to nepotism, casteism and appeasement. “Before 2015, Uttar Pradesh’s economy was sixth in the country and today, it is at number two. Unemployment rate has reduced to 4.1 per cent,” Shah was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“Azamgarh was known for radicalisation during the Samajwadi Party rule. Now, Azamgarh will be known for education. I want to suggest CM Yogi to name the university being built here after Maharaja Suheldev,” the Union minister added.
Prior to the address, Shah had laid the foundation stone of a state university in Azamgarh.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday told reporters that “the BJP does politics of destruction not development.” “It has deceived the people… If anyone is defaming Azamgarh, it’s BJP,” the SP chief was quoted as saying by ANI.
“A ‘Yogya Sarkar’ is the need in UP, not ‘Yogi Sarkar’. The one that knows to operate laptops or the Internet. The CM can’t even operate a laptop. I have also heard that he doesn’t know how to operate a phone either,” Yadav said.
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