Bengaluru: Setting the stage for a battle with the ruling Congress ahead of the Assembly polls, now barely four months away, the BJP's emerging mascot and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday trained his guns on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who had recently asserted that he too was a Hindu.
Addressing the BJP's Parivarthana Rally at Vijayanagar in Bengaluru, Mr Adityanath said the CM had made the turnaround seeing the growing popularity of Hindu ideology in the state.
“He (Siddaramaiah) should realise that Hinduism is a way of life in India and not merely the name of a caste or religion. It is basically a culture,'' he quipped making it more than evident that a religion-based strategy would be the cornerstone of the BJP's poll campaign in the days to come.
“During the tenure of the previous BJP regime, the government introduced the Anti-Cow Slaughter Bill in the Karnataka Assembly. If he (Siddaramaiah) is a Hindu, why did he and the Congress party oppose the bill?. Now with Assembly elections approaching, he has started dividing castes in the state,' remarked the UP CM.
Drawing a parallel between Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, Yogi hinted that the issue of Hanuman Jayanthi which had become controversial a few months ago after the Congress government banned a procession in Hunsur in Mysuru, may play a dominant role during the Assembly elections here.
“Like Uttar Pradesh is the birthplace of Lord Rama, Karnataka is the birthplace of Lord Hanuman. So, Hanuman Jayanthi is a great issue here as everyone celebrates the day. Like Rama in Uttar Pradesh, it is Hanuman in Karnataka,'' he said.
Keeping the tirade going against the Congress government, Yogi said law and order had completely collapsed here. Earlier, riots used to take place in UP but after the BJP took over, the government has not allowed any riot to happen, he said.
There was a lot of development activity taking place in the country, which the Congress government here was hardly able to comprehend. During the tenure of the previous NDA government, the state had got the Bengaluru International Airport and the Metro project and now, it had the Smart City project. If a government, which thinks on similar lines like the Centre has to be installed in the state, it was necessary to vote for the BJP, Yogi added.
