After BJP leaders took a dig at Jayant Chaudhary for his statement that he “may skip voting”, the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief amended it later saying he will “try” to vote. People cast their ballot in the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections on Thursday.
Chaudhary faced sharp criticism from the BJP after he said he will skip voting due to election rallies. He later, however, changed his statement and said he will try casting his vote in Mathura. The politically significant western UP voted in the first phase. Chaudhary is in Bijnor for poll campaigning, according to news agency ANI,
“I’m a voter of Mathura. Right now, we’re in Bijnor as there are just two days to campaign between the first and second rounds of the UP polls. My wife voted in the morning itself. After campaigning ends here, I’ll try to vote at booths open till 6 pm,” Chaudhary was quoted as saying.
He also posted a picture of his wife Charu Chaudhary, who was spotted posing for photos after voting at a booth in Mathura. He tweeted: “Charu casts vote in Mathura!”
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is also with Chaudhary in Bijnor.
After he made the statement that he may skip voting, many BJP leaders flagged that Chaudhary was not voting but an RLD spokesperson said he would be visiting a polling booth in the evening. At an election rally, BJP national president JP Nadda said, “Today one leader, who was supposed to vote and exercise his franchise, did not even do so. This is the arrogance of parivarvad (nepotism). Such people get the reply they deserve from democracy.”
Earlier in the day, Chaudhary had said, “You can call me ‘baccha’ or ‘ladka’, I don’t care. We’re going ahead with hopeful and positive thoughts. We want to promote positive politics. Akhilesh and I want to work on the issues of employment, agriculture, much needed industrialization in western UP.”
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