Adityanath govt using bulldozers to threaten opposition leaders: UP Cong chief
Bareilly (UP) (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai on Monday accused the BJP government of using bulldozers to threaten leaders of opposition parties and challenged the Adityanath dispensation to run the earthmoving vehicle on his house.
Rai also alleged that both the Modi government at the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in UP are repressive and that 'jungle raj' prevailed in the state.
"I will change the direction of the bulldozer with which opposition party leaders are being threatened. The BJP is also using ED and CBI against its opponents. I will not show my back even bullets are fired," he told reporters here.
"I challenge the government that if you want to run a bulldozer, then run it on my house...I am not afraid," the Congress leader said when asked about the use of bulldozers in the state.
Chief Minister Adityanath has earned the sobriquet of "bulldozer baba" due to his frequent reference of the heavy machine which his dispensation deployed to raze the ill-gotten property of criminals and mafias in the state.
Targeting the government, Rai said that 'jungle raj' has been established in the state where no one is safe.
He also alleged that the state government is working to create hatred among the people.
The Congress leader also offered prayers at Alakhnath temple, and then he went to Dargah Ala Hazrat.
Earlier, addressing Congress workers, Rai said, "If we want to see Rahul Gandhi as the prime minister of the country in 2024, the biggest responsibility lies with Uttar Pradesh. If we become weak, we will not be able to make him the prime minister."
Rai said that for this the workers will have to work hard at the grassroots level.
He said the bond between the Congress and Amethi goes generations back and expressed confident that the people of Amethi will ensure Rahul Gandhi's victory this time.
"I have come from the city of Mahadev (Varanasi). People of all religions are equal," he said.
Rai was the Congress candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2014 and 2019 general elections in Varanasi parliamentary constituency.
After becoming the state president, he visited Bareilly for the first time.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
