Taking a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said that she was compelled to visit temples and recite ‘Chandi Path’ (a system of chanting Hindu religious mantras) in public after the BJP came to power at the Centre.
He also said that before the BJP came to power at the Centre there was a group of people who thought that even a visit to the temple would jeopardise their secular credentials.
“Now there is a change. Even Mamata didi is visiting temples and doing Chandi Path in public? Is this not a change? This is New India where everyone has to go to God,” said Adityanath. He was addressing a BJP rally at Balarampur in the Purulia district.
Adityanath slammed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government for blocking the Central projects in Bengal and said that its days are numbered as the people of the State have made up their minds to usher in change. “The days of Mamata didi’s government are numbered. The people of Bengal have decided to vote the TMC out of power. There are only 45 days left for the TMC,” said Adityanath.
He further alleged that Bengal which was once the land of luminaries such as Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, had become the land of “tolabaji” (extortion) because of the TMC. “Bengal, the land of Rabindranath, Vivekananda, Syama Prasad has now become the land of TMC’s tolabaji,” said Adityanath.
He said that if voted to power, the BJP will put behind bars those who were responsible for the killing of its workers in Bengal.
Taking potshots at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his visit to temples in poll-bound states, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that he also goes to temples now. “Even Rahul Gandhi goes to temples now and once the priest told him how to sit there in a correct posture,” said Adityanath.