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UP: Why is the BJP talking about bicycles and bulldozers now?

Bulldozers were lined up at UP CM’s rally venue, Home Minister Shah invoked cycles, and even PM Modi responded to Akhilesh Yadav’s ‘long stay’ Varanasi comment

Uttar Pradesh assembly elections
Image Courtesy:newindianexpress.com

On Sunday, polling for the fifth round of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections was held in 61 constituencies, spread across 12 districts in eastern part of the state. This included the most watched constituencies of Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Amethi, Gonda, Raebareli, Kaushambi, Chitrakoot, Bahraich, Pratapgarh, Barabanki, among others. According to news reports, the Election Commission reported that, “2,24,77,494 voters sealed the fate of 693 candidates” in the region. These include incumbent deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

However, as there are still two more phases still to go, the political buzz in the state continues. Interestingly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has spent much of its campaign targeting its biggest opponent the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party for ‘work not done’ or for ‘favouring minorities’ etc, even though it is the BJP that is the incumbent government. 

Even Prime Minister Modi who was campaigning in his constituency Varanasi on Monday February 28, lashed out at Akhilesh Yadav, who had commented that the Prime Minister in 2021 had held many official functions in Varanasi, in ‘preparation’ for the assembly elections and timed the events before the electoral Model Code of Conduct came into effect. “How low people have stooped in Indian politics, but when in Kashi, they prayed for my death, I felt elated,” the PM was quoted by news agency ANI, this was his response purportedly aimed at Akhilesh Yadav’s reaction to the various detailed and lengthy functions spearheaded by the PM. Yadav had said, “It is good. They can stay there not just for one month, but even two or three months. That is the right place to stay. People spend their last days in Banaras (Varanasi).” The BJP leadership had lashed out at that comment even then. Now the Prime Minister, the area MP since 2014, revived the comment in Varanasi where five assembly constituencies, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantonment, Sevapuri and Rohaniya, will vote on March 7. 

Even before the PM’s barb at SP, the BJP’s other star campaigner Home Minister Amit Shah kept his focus on the bicycle, which is the SP’s symbol. On Sunday, he also trained verbal brickbats at Yadav, and said  that if people chose to ride a bicycle, then electricity will disappear from Uttar Pradesh. Shah was addressing public meetings in Bansdih in Ballia district and Farenda assembly constituency of Maharajganj district, and reportedly added a communal twist saying, “Earlier when there was Tazia-Muharram, there was electricity in Uttar Pradesh. But electricity used to be missing in Shri Ram Navami, Shri Krishna Janmotsav.” Shah asked the crowd, “Is this true?” And when they answered “yes” he warned the voters, “If you ride a cycle, then again electricity will disappear from Uttar Pradesh.”

Then there is the incumbent UP CM Adityanath who’s election rally venue in Sultanpur district on Friday even had ‘Bulldozers’ in attendance. This was reportedly his response to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s calling him ‘Bulldozer Baba’. 

Bulldozers were parked at the venue where Adityanath addressed a rally. Video of the UP CM sitting in a helicopter enjoying the sight and asking the cameraman to look at the bulldozers with banners saying “look the bulldozers are also lined up in my meeting” went viral on social media as well.

The CM is smarting at being branded “Bulldozer Baba” by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadavwho claimed in a recent interview that a section of the media was now calling Adityanath’s by that nick-name. Yadav had recently said, “Yogi used to change names and colours of schemes in the past five years and now his name has also been changed to Bulldozer wale Baba.”

‘Bulldozer’ here was a reference to action taken by the Adityanath-led state government to vacate land they stated was illegally occupied land using bulldozers and  JCBs. The CM at his rally on Friday, said, “We have developed this machine that builds express highways and also tackles the mafias and criminals. When I was coming here, I saw four bulldozers. I think there are five assemblies, we will send one to each, then everything will be fine.”

Around February 15, 2022, a video of Bharatiya Janata Party’s T. Raja Singh, an MLA from the Goshamahal Assembly of Hyderabad, Telangana, threatening Uttar Pradesh’s Hindu voters to re-elect the Adityanath-led BJP government circulated widely on social media. He was heard and seen warning the voters that if they do not vote for a “Yogi-government” then their houses will be identified and destroyed with bulldozers and JCBs.

According to news reports, now the BJP cadres are claiming that the CM is greeted by both “Jai Shri Ram” and “Bulldozer Baba Zindabad”.

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