NEW DELHI: With just three more days of canvassing left for the Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has unleashed its top brass, including firebrand Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to charge up its cadre and rachet up its ‘Rashtrawad’ (nationalism) pitch for votes.
Addressing a raft of public meetings in the city, Yogi stirred the Shaheen Bagh pot, accusing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of standing with ‘anti-nationals’ and even treating the protesters with ‘biryani’.
The protesters at Shaheen Bagh have been holding out for more than a month, seeking rollback of the vexed Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Addressing a meeting at Vikaspuri on Monday, the UP CM said, “A Pakistani minister has praised (Chief Minister Arvind) Kejriwal because he knows only Kejriwal can feed biryani to the Shaheen Bagh protesters.”
Zulqarnain, a protester at Shaheen Bagh, said, “The BJP, especially the likes of Adityanath, wants to cook up Election Biryani, which the people may not be able to stomach.”
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Kejriwal was prompt to hit back at Yogi for tying him and his party to the Shaheen Bagh protest, saying, “The fate of hospitals in UP, especially the one in Gorakhpur (which reported infant deaths), is known to everyone. The UP CM to address the concerns of his own state before campaigning here.”