opinion | UP Elections: Now Yogi Vs Akhilesh!
Campaigning is now in full swing in Uttar Pradesh and all major stakeholders are addressing election meetings in western and central regions. BJP President JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav, RLD chief Jayant Choudhary, BSP supremo Mayawati and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi are busy addressing election rallies. Yogi will file his nomination from Gorakhpur on Friday. On Wednesday, he addressed four election meetings in western UP.
As the pace of election campaign intensified, a war of words, accusations and counter-accusations started between Yogi and Akhilesh Yadav. Yogi alleged in his meetings that two ‘ladke’ (youth) have now joined hands to contest elections, but when communal riots broke out in Muzaffarnagar five years ago, one of them was honoring the leader of the rioters in Lucknow. While the other was in Delhi doing nothing for the victims Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary responded immediately.
Addressing a joint press conference, Akhilesh Yadav said that the Chief Minister should be careful with his words while making allegations. “The language Yogi ji is using is not in accord with the dignity of the chief minister’s chair,” he said. He said, Yogi seems to have not lost his patience after not getting the ticket of his choice, he is feeling hot, but he will calm down after the results are out on March 10.
Yogi left no stone unturned in attacking Akhilesh Yadav. He said, earlier the Chief Minister used to spend heavily on his government bungalows, but during his five-year rule, houses were built for 43 lakh poor families in UP. He alleged that most of the money from the exchequer was being given to the friends of the then CM, who used to manufacture ittras (friends with itra). “They are socialists in name only, but by act, they are ‘dangawadi’ (rioters), and their thought process is patriarchal (dynast)”, Yogi said.
Akhilesh threatened that if his party came to power, all the old criminal cases registered against Yogi would be reopened. The fearless Yogi alleged that during the SP rule there used to be illegal gun factories in UP, but under the BJP rule, a defense corridor has been started for manufacturing defense related products. Yogi said that the earlier regime was ruled by gangsters and mafia, while during the BJP regime bulldozers were used to destroy illegal properties acquired by corrupt mafia gangsters. “These bulldozers will not stop”, said Yogi.
I come to know that during the first phase of election campaign, Akhilesh Yadav used to list the achievements of his regime and promised to implement new schemes if his party came to power, but after tying up with smaller parties Akhilesh seems to be spending most of his time keeping this alliance intact.
Akhilesh is now relying more on the success of his allies as the polling dates draw closer. Akhilesh no longer talks about crime, corruption and rioters. The reason is that his party and its allies have given tickets to many candidates with criminal background. This has given Yogi an opportunity to hit back at Akhilesh, whose main theme is to give tickets to criminals and gangsters.
Yogi Adityanath cleverly combined the two: the achievements during his rule and the weaknesses and failures of Akhilesh’s regime. Look at the way rivals attacked: He mentioned how 43 lakh families got homes during his rule and added this figure to the money spent by previous chief ministers on their bungalows.
Yogi then compares the illegal arms factories that flourished during the earlier regime, and compares it to the defense corridor which is going to manufacture artillery guns for our army. He then reminds the voters how Akhilesh honored the leaders behind the Muzaffarnagar riots and mentions in the same breath how his government sent criminals, rioters and corrupt mafia leaders behind bars and their illegal properties. Bulldozer built.
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