Ahead of the upcoming assembly elections, the political atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh is all charged up, especially by sharp remarks made by the chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who has launched a blistering attack against his opponents, most notably the Samajwadi Party.

While addressing a public meeting at the foundation stone laying event of the ATS center in Deoband Yogi remarked, “Earlier Government used to neutralize charges on terrorists, and we are building an ATS (Anti-Terror Squad) center to hit back at them”. Deoband, which houses the seminary school of Darul Uloom, was also on the radar of the state government due to suspected terrorist activities. In a move to strengthen the intelligence apparatus, the foundation stone of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Commando Training Centre was laid on January 04 at Deoband in the Saharanpur district.

Talking about the center in his speech, Yogi Adityanath added that his government has a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy towards crime, and the new center at ATS in Deoband will be a strong base for ensuring the security of Western Uttar Pradesh.” “The 56 commandos deployed will dig out terrorists the way Osama Bin Laden was hunted,” he added.

However, this was not the first time he has lashed out at his critics while making political appearances. Last year on December 31, he had launched a scathing attack at the Samajwadi party saying, “If you ask someone about the SP, they would say any car which holds the SP’s party flag, the person sitting inside will definitely be a goon.” The reaction came after the Uttar Pradesh police had arrested Samajwadi Party workers from Kanpur trying to create disruption during PM Modi’s visit to the city. “SP’s flag is a symbol of anarchy” he added.

Earlier in the month, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav had claimed that Lord Krishna comes to his dreams to tell him to establish Ram Rajya in Uttar Pradesh”. The next day, with a Mahabharata jibe, Yogi Adityanath accused the previous SP government of creating a ‘Kans’ which resulted in the killing of 29 people on the Jawahar Bagh incident in 2016 when police had forcibly tried to evict squatters who were backed by Ram Vriksh Yadav. The CM hit out at Akhilesh Yadav saying, “Lord Krishna would be cursing him for unleashing riots during his rule, firing on Ram devotees by his party”

In a tweet on January 21, Yogi Adityanath took on Twitter to write, “It is hilarious to listen about democracy and development from those who are undemocratic, criminal dynastic by character. The list of assembly election candidates confirms that the SP is a ‘riot lover’ and a ‘Tamanchawadi’ (the one with guns). Accusing the SP of having a ‘criminal mindset’, this time the CM had a new name for the party.

While inaugurating developmental projects at Rampur – the home turf of SP leader Azam Khan, CM Yogi had remarked, “The famous Rampuri Knife became a tool for capturing the land of the poor during the SP govt. wrong people misuse it for looting and capturing the properties of the poor and downtrodden.” He then added, “We follow the ‘guru Parampara. Good people use the tool to protect the country and religion,” The famous Rampuri knife has also been included in the one-district-one-product scheme of the government.

The assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Uttar Pradesh from 10 February to 7 March 2022 in seven phases to elect all 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 10 March 2022.

References:

opindia.com - OpIndia Staff