Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav
PTI
Mainpuri: Lok Sabha MP from Mainpuri Dimple Yadav on Tuesday said Yogi Adityanath's call to Hindus to stay "united" was an attempt to distract the people from their real concerns.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister last month gave the Hindus warning "Batoge to Katoge" (Divided you will fall).
Speaking to reporters in Mainpuri, Yadav said, "People of Uttar Pradesh know it well that such statements are to meant divert their minds and such statements will be aired in future."
The Samajwadi Party leader said the young generation wants employment and women protection. "Such statements will have no impact at all." Canvassing for party candidates for the bypolls, she said the SP will win Karhal election with a large margin.
Tej Pratap Yadav on Monday filed his nomination as an SP member from the Karhal assembly constituency, where bypoll is due on November 13.
Karhal is just four kilometres from Akhilesh Yadav's native village Saifai in Etawah district. The constituency forms part of Dimple Yadav's Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat.
The seat has been a stronghold of the SP since 1993. In the 2002 assembly election, it went to BJP's Sobaran Singh Yadav who later joined the SP.
The bypoll there was necessitated after resignation of Akhilesh Yadav on being elected from Kannauj as MP.
Adityanath on September 23 reiterated his "batenge toh katenge" remark, saying it was disunity which led to the "invaders destroying the Ram temple" in Ayodhya.
"Ayodhya Dham is now flourishing. The grand temple of Lord Ram Lalla has been built, but we must ask why we had to wait 500 years for this moment," Adityanath had said at an event in Mirzapur.
"Why did invaders destroy the magnificent temple of Lord Ram Lalla and impose a structure symbolising slavery? The answer lies in our disunity … We lost because we were divided," he had said.
The BJP leader had made the remark earlier as well in reference to the violence in Bangladesh after the fall of Sheikh Hasina-led government.