Uttar Pradesh polls: Why is Akhilesh remembering person behind India's partition, asks BJP National president J P Nadda

Shahjahanpur/Bareilly: BJP national president J P Nadda on 28 January, 2022, targeted Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, asking why is he remembering the person responsible for partition of India and not the one who united the country. Nadda made the remark while apparently referring to Yadav’s statement on Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who he appeared to equate with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel during an event in October last year. Earlier in the day, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had called Yadav and his party “worshippers of Jinnah”. The remarks of Nadda and Adityanath come a day after BJP leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the issue of farmers’ sugarcane should be raised in the elections and not the name of the Pakistani leader. Addressing a poll event here, Nadda asked why Yadav is remembering the person responsible for the India’s partition. “Why he is not remembering Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the one who united the country,” he asked. Attacking the Samajwadi Party, Nadda said the previous SP government failed to address the law-and-order issue in the state. “Women were insecure under their government. Law and order was very poor. Today, the mafia is either surrendering or going to jail or leaving Uttar Pradesh,” he said. Nadda also accused Yadav of giving tickets to criminals for the upcoming UP Assembly elections. “What is the compulsion of Akhilesh Yadav that he is making criminals his candidate? This is done so that the friendship remains intact. You may be friends, why should the people of UP be friends (with you),” he said. Nadda said under the previous SP regime, only one family flourished, apparently referring to the Yadav family. “But, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, development is taking place on the basis of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas’,” he said. Nadda also said the SP never sought votes on the basis of performance. “They make new promises every time in every election but the BJP moves ahead on the basis of a report card. It is only the BJP which does what it promises. The rest of the parties make false promises. The prime minister has changed the work culture of the country,” he said. Mounting an attack on the SP, the BJP chief said, “In the SP government, the land mafia used to grab government land, forcibly occupy houses and dislodge the poor from their houses. But in our government, the mafia has surrendered.” Later, speaking in Bareilly, Nadda said, “Be it SP, BSP or the Congress, all of them are party of one family. They have only benefited their families. For the BJP, family is the party. Our aim is ‘sabka saath, sabka vikaas, sabka vishvaas and sabka prayaas’.”