As the campaign builds up for the forthcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, new terms, mainly concerning the Muslims, have been making entry into the speeches of BJP leaders in what the political analysts say is an attempt to 'polarise' the elections along religious lines and project itself as the messiah of the Hindus.
BJP leaders have also been raking up the issues of conversion, cow slaughter, and migration of Hindu families in their rallies and seeking to remind the Hindus about their alleged 'humiliation' and attack on their culture during the regimes of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and others.
Senior BJP leader and UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who stoked a huge controversy by appearing to give a call to the party supporters to prepare for the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura, said that 'lungichap' goondas carrying arms used to terrorise the people and traders and grab their lands during the previous SP regime.
"People wearing lungis and skull caps grabbed your (people) land and threatened you during the previous regime...you should remember all these things," Maurya said while addressing a public meeting in Prayagraj on Saturday.
Maurya also said that he would henceforth address the SP president as 'Akhilesh Ali Jinnah'.
Going a step further, UP BJP president Swatantra Deo Singh on Sunday likened the SP president Akhilesh Yadav's regime to the rules of Mahmud of Ghazni, who had plundered India in 10th century, and Muhammad Ghori, who laid the foundation of the Muslim rule in India in the 12th century.
"Like Ghazni and Ghori, these people (Akhilesh) have also looted the state and attacked our religious identity....the Hindus had to plead with the officials to allow them to make a pandal for Durga Puja," Singh said. The BJP leader called Akhilesh a "seasonal Hindu".
"The situation has changed since 2017. Today flowers are showered on the kanwad yatras, Ram Temple is under construction in Ayodhya and Kashi Vishwanath Corridor is ready," he remarked.
Singh asked the SP president to seek forgiveness from Lord Rama and Shiva for 'atrocities' on the karsevaks in Ayodhya and 'attacking' the cultural symbols of Hinduism.
Senior SP leader Anurag Bhadauria said that Singh's remarks proved that the BJP had 'conceded' defeat in the forthcoming polls. "It seems the BJP has already conceded defeat in the next polls....they have perhaps realised that the people of the state are going to oust them from power and therefore they are trying to polarise the elections," he added.
Political analysts say that the campaigning in UP may witness more references to Muslim invaders by the BJP leaders as the elections draw closer as the saffron party will try to project itself as the only party which can protect the interests of the Hindus.
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