From ‘Muslims of UP will win’ to ‘will ensure security to Brahmins’: Opposition leaders kick off 2022 election campaign

While Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is busy implementing the ‘Yogya model’ to give the state a facelift, the opposition seems to have taken the communal route to fight the upcoming state assembly elections. 

AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi kickstarting his campaign for Uttar Pradesh 2022 state elections from Ayodhya claimed that the “Muslims of UP will win.”  

“We will fight the elections and win. The Muslims of Uttar Pradesh will win,” announced Owaisi. 

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The Muslim leader also hosted a ‘vanchit-shoshit samaj’ (deprived and victimized communities) conference on Tuesday to blow the political bugle.

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In what appears like a bid to communalize the elections further, AIMIM deliberately referred to the Ayodhya district as Faizabad (former name of the district) in posters planted and circulated on social media irking the seer community. The UP government had renamed Faizabad division as Ayodhya in November 2018.

After the name was masked on a few posters, the UP police asked the Islamic party to take down the posters following an outrage. 

The priest of Hanuman Garhi temple at Ayodhya, Mahanth Raju Das, informing that the seers will not allow Owaisi to visit Ayodhya asserted, “Ayodhya should not be called Faizabad The district’s new name ‘Ayodhya’ is registered in government records.”

However, AIMIM’s district president Shahnawaz Siddiqui claimed that both the names were mentioned on the poster. It doesn’t matter what name we write, this is not the subject to make an issue,” Siddiqui scoffed. 

Whereas, AIMIM state unit president Shaukat Ali feels that the saffron brigade is simply fretting at AIMIM’s presence and envious seeing its ‘increasing support base.’

Mayawati promises ‘security’ to Brahmin voters

In a bid to consolidate the ‘upper-caste’ votes, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday while attending the Prabudh Sammelan promised ‘security’ to the Brahmins. 

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She claimed that the Brahmins or upper-caste Hindus were in a better condition during BSP’s rule in the state. 

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Mayawati expressing the will to right a wrong claimed that her only focus if brought to power will be ‘development’. “Now, I will focus only on the development of Uttar Pradesh and not on building parks and smaraks in the state,” she pledged.

Meanwhile, the Yogi Adityanath government apart from the developmental projects is also focused on containing the coronavirus and accelerating the vaccination drive.

CM Adityanath took to Twitter on Monday to announce that the state has crossed the 8 crore mark in Covid vaccine jabs. “More than 8 crore 36 thousand doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in UP,” announced the CM in his Tweet encouraging people to keep the ‘Teeka Jeet Ka’ campaign going.

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More than 6.5 crore people have received their first dose of the vaccine while over a crore in the state of Uttar Pradesh are now fully vaccinated. 

The most populous state in India is set to go to polls next year. The high stakes election is believed to set the tone for the 2024 general election and it seems no party want to leave any stone unturned to create a dent.