While the entire Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadre and the top brass is campaigning at their best in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, BJP senior leader and Union Minister Uma Bharti, on February 27, stated that the party made a big mistake by not fielding any Muslim candidate across the state in the ongoing polls.
While speaking an English news channel, Uma Bharti said,”I spoke to our party chief Amit Shah and Keshav Prasad Maurya about how we could have brought a Muslim to the assembly. I personally feel very sorry that we couldn’t field Muslims. Rajnathji has said the right thing, we could have given them ticket.”
However, Uma Bharti’s this statement contradicts with the one given by another senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Vinay Katiyar. Katiyar asked,”Why should we give Muslims ticket when they don’t vote us.”
Earlier today, Katiyar also asserted that the development and employment generation in UP are worthless until Ram Mandir is constructed in Ayodhya.
As reported by the news agency ANI, Katiyar said,”In Uttar Pradesh, development, education and employment are there but everything is meaningless without Ram Mandir.” Earlier last week, while addressing a rally in Faizabad, he assured the people if BJP gets the majority in the state, Ram Mandir will definitely be constructed.
On the other hand, the polling in the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2017 for 51 seats in 11 districts began on February 27. A voter turnout of 61 % was recording during the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly election. Polling went peacefully in most of the areas, however, locals in Fatehpur’s Khera boycotted polling over developmental issues. There is a tight contest between the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). 607 candidates in the fray in the fifth phase. The 11 districts include Ayodhya, Balrampur, Gonda, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Amethi and Sultanpur. Security has been beefed up to ensure smooth polling.
