As UP politics is revolving fast on the issue of Gyanvapi, especially after the remarks made by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party leader Swamy Prasad Maurya reacted by saying that the CM should not have made such a statement as the case is sub judice.
To counter Yogi Adityanath’s strong Hindutva card, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav tried to play casteist card when he tweeted, “Why were the walls of CM Yogi Adityanath’s residence washed with Ganga water after he became the state chief minister for the first time?”
This is not the first time that the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has targeted Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Before the 2022 assembly polls, Yogi Adityanath had generated a sort of controversy when he said about BJP’s 80-20 formula for party’s victory, in a clear indication to Hindu-Muslim polarisation of votes.
And in the last state assembly polls, it showed result with the Saffron party getting more Hindu votes than in 2017.
And as the next Parliamentary polls near, the BJP is trying once again to mix its Hindutva with caste as the state of Uttar Pradesh has tasted caste-based power on numerous occasions.
In the 2017 assembly elections in the state, the BJP had got 47 per cent of Hindu votes. Yogi Adityanath became the chief minister of the state and in the following years, he kept on espousing upliftment of Hindu religious centres like Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura.
In 2022, BJP had already put forward the face of CM Yogi and the party got 54 percent Hindu votes, which means more than half of the Hindu votes went to the BJP. That is why, BJP does not want to deviate from its core ideology due to which it has become India’s biggest political party today.
On the other hand, the Samajwadi party has always banked on OBC votes, especially Yadav and Muslim community. To consolidate its vote bank, it does not want to annoy Hindu voters too.
In the 2022 elections, SP got the maximum number of votes after BJP.
Keeping all these factors in mind, Samajwadi Party believes that the Hindutva of the BJP can only by countered through powerful equation of castes.
