Ahead of the UP assembly elections, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Tuesday, hit out at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his '80 per cent versus 20 per cent' remark. She also urged the youth to make the elections about issues such as employment and education and not about casteism.
Attacking the chief minister over his remark, Priyanka Vadra on Tuesday claimed that it was an attempt to divert attention from the real issues of the youth.
“Making such remarks is cheating the youths of the state just to divert their attention from the main issues like providing jobs, education etc. The reality is that 68 out of 100 people have no work during the tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party government,” Priyanka Vadra alleged.
Appealing to youth to ignore Yogi Adityanath’s claims, Priyanka appealed to them to take into consideration issues like employment, education etc. instead of giving importance to those spreading hatred among different communities. .
Earlier, Yogi Adityanath had called the elections in Uttar Pradesh an "80 versus 20 battle", in his recent comment on a religious divide. The BJP cited the number of votes in the ratio of Hindus and Muslims in UP, where assembly elections will be held next month.
On being asked about the Brahmin votes in UP, in his recent interview with a private news channel, Yogi said "The contest has moved much ahead… The fight is now 80 versus 20."
He added, “Eighty per cent are those who are supporters of nationalism, good governance, and development. Such people will vote for the BJP and those who are against this and supporters of mafias and criminals, anti-farmer and village, such 15-20 people will take a different path. So, in this 80-20 fight, it is the lotus that will show the way," the chief minister said in his last interaction.
Meanwhile, Congress MLC Deepak Singh has criticised the BJP leader for violating the Covid protocol and has written a letter to the Election Commission of India, demanding immediate action.
Singh attacked the BJP for "putting the lives of people at risk" amid the COVID-19 surge.
"On Monday (BJP in-charge of UP) Radha Mohan Singh held an election meeting with all the office-bearers of the BJP including chief minister, deputy chief ministers, state president, leaders and ministers. On Tuesday, he tested positive for COVID-19. Leaders, who were present in the meeting, instead of isolating themselves, are engaged in public outreach and are putting the lives of people at risk," Singh claimed in the letter sent to the Election Commission on Tuesday.
He further alleged that "the BJP is spreading coronavirus by doing door-to-door campaigns (ghar ghar corona baat rahe hain)."
Besides Singh, Samajwadi Party MLC Sunil Singh Yadav also criticised the BJP and said in a tweet in Hindi that the BJP was going house-to-house to placate the voters, who had become angry at the government, as it had failed on all fronts.
He said that ever after turning Covid positive, the BJP leaders, instead of isolating themselves, were going house to house in the name of door to door campaign and subsequently spreading the disease.
It may be mentioned that with the Election Commission putting a moratorium on holding public rallies and gatherings in view of the spurt in coronavirus cases, the BJP on Tuesday launched its door-to-door campaign to reach out to voters across Uttar Pradesh. The campaign was launched in Lucknow by BJP UP chief Swatantra Dev Singh who knocked on doors of houses in the Ballu Adda area and pasted stickers outside the homes and also applied 'tilak' on the forehead of some house owners. The other BJP leaders also made door to door campaigns in other districts of the state.