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BJP faces flak over Yogi Adityanath as UP poll campaigner

by IBNS 28 Aug 2014, 11:09 am

New Delhi, Aug 28 (IBNS): The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the centre is sucked in a controversy over making its MP Yogi Adityanath as their star campaigner in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh byelections amid a video circulating in media on his "hate" speech where he spoke of communal revenge by Hindus.

Yogi has been made one of the three leaders in charge of UP campaign, the other two being  union minister Kalraj Mishra and BJP UP chief f Laxmikant Bajpayee.

Elections to 11 assembly seats would be held on Sept 13.

In the controversial video, Yogi, who role as campaigner has been assigned by BJP president Amit Shah, was seen addressing a gathering in and undated video (could be 2007) where he said: "If one Hindu girl is converted, we will convert 100 Muslim girls."

He was seen exhorting the gathering to holler that if one Hindu is killed, 100 from another community will be killed.

Yogi told media channels that it was a cut and paste video.

The BJP has expressed concern over Hindu women being targetted by alleged Muslim men and their alleged forced conversion.

Yogi told NDTV channel that they "won't tolerate what's happening to Hindu women in the name of love jihad".

It is alleged that the saffron group comprising BJP and its ideological patron Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has made the term "love jihad" as the cornerstone of poll campaign in UP, which witnessed a series of communal clashes and deaths in violence between two communities.