The Bharatiya Janata Party kicked off its Lok Sabha poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh with senior party leaders, including national president Amit Shah, holding Vijay Sankalp rallies across the state, invoking nationalism that centred around Pulwama terror attack.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh addressed a rally in Lucknow from where he is seeking re-election, while UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed a rally in Saharanpur, the parliamentary constituency which will go to polls in the first phase on April 11. Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also addressed a meeting in Rampur.
“In this election, the opposition is defaming the valour of Indian army and this is not acceptable to the people of this country. The people will teach a bitter lesson to the political parties which are raising questions on Pulwama attack and the subsequent Indian action,” Amit Shah said while addressing a rally in Agra.
Incidentally, all the top leaders of the BJP who picked up the gauntlet to ensure party’s victory in the Lok Sabha election, talked about Pulwama attack and Pakistan in their addresses.
Rajnath Singh also accused some opposition parties of questioning armed forces in the wake of the IAF air strike inside Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack.
“Some leaders are asking how many people were killed in that attack. This amounts to questioning whether air strike actually happened,” he said
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath even equated one of the candidates in Saharanpur as ‘damaad (son-in-law) of Azhar Masood and asked people to defeat the candidates who talk the language of terrorists.
Uttar Pradesh, home to 22 crore people, sends the maximum number of 80 members to the Lok Sabha. In the 2014 election, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) had won 73 seats of which BJP of its own had bagged 71 seats. This year the party has set a target to win 74 seats.
“For the sake of vote bank, the opposition is questioning Indian army. India needs a prime minister who can give a befitting reply to Pakistan and terrorism. When Pulwama happened, people thought nothing would be done but they did not realise that (Narendra) Modi is the Prime Minister of the country. This time the Air Force was used to destroy terrorist centres (at Balakot),” BJP national president Amit Shah said.
He said till date there were only two countries in the world which had taken revenge of deaths of their soldiers in terrorist attacks — United States and Israel — and now India’s name had been added to this list.
Shah also attacked the previous Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party governments, saying they were corrupt and squandered money for personal gains.
Shah’s rally, held at the Agra College grounds, was attended by MP from Agra, Ram Shankar Katheria, who has been denied ticket and in his place the party has fielded SPS Baghel.