As Uttar Pradesh gears up for a high-stakes Assembly election, incumbent Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has stirred controversy with his remark on the election being an "80 vs 20" battle.
Speaking at an event organised by a news channel, the chief minister said that this election is a contest between the 80 percent and 20 percent population of Uttar Pradesh.
"There should be no misunderstanding here. This election will be an 80 vs 20 battle and 80 percent people will move ahead with positive energy and support the BJP and 20 percent have always opposed us and will continue to do so but BJP will definitely retain power," he said.
Several people on social media including politicians from Opposition parties have called out the CM's remark as "communal" and an attempt to "polarise" Uttar Pradesh ahead of the elections.
Former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh in his tweet demanded the Election Commission to take action against Aditya for "violating the Representation of People Act".
Meanwhile, coming to Adityanath’s defence, BJP leader Alok Vats claimed in an NDTV interview that Adityanath was not talking about Muslims and went on to give the break-up of the 20 percent.
Vats said, “This 20 percent consists 9 percent of criminals and antisocial elements, 3.5 percent are land-grabbers, 2 percent are people who do atrocities on women, people who are pro-Pakistan are 2 percent, people who are against Vande Mataram are 1.5 percent. This completes 20 percent.”
When Vats was asked where he got this data from, he said it is a “social study”.
Previously, Yogi Adityanath has drawn criticism for his use of terms like "abba jaan" as a communal barb against Muslims and targeting Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav by saying that he has created the rule of "nizam" in Uttar Pradesh.
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