Both Ali, Bajrang Bali ours, says Mayawati; links her community to Hanuman
Badaun (UP), Apr 13: Slamming Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his recent remark, BSP chief Mayawati Saturday said her own party wanted both Ali and Bajrang Bali particularly Bajrang Bali as the deity is "linked with my own Dalit caste".
Mayawati recalled Adityanath's comment in which he referred to her earlier appeal to Muslims to vote for the opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
Apparently referring to Muslims and Hindus, Adityanath had said if Ali is with the opposition, the Bajrang Bali is with the BJP.
"In this connection, I want to tell him that both Ali and Bajrang Bali are ours, she said at the joint opposition rally she addressed here along with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.
So we want Ali as well as Bajrang Bali," she said. "We particularly want Bajrang Bali because he is linked to my own Dalit caste."
Last year Adityanath had described Bajrang Bali or Lord Hanuman as a forest dweller and a Dalit, provoking controversy.
"I am very thankful to Yogi ji that he has given us important information about our ancestors, the Bahujan Samaj Party leader said.
So it is a very happy moment to note that we have both Ali and Bajrang Bali, and their coming together will give us very good results in these elections," she said.
"In the Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi's party will get the votes of neither Ali nor Bajrang Bali, who is associated with my caste," she said.
Earlier this week, the Election Commission served a notice to Mayawati over her appeal for votes to Muslims and sent Adityanath one for his Ali-Bajrang Bali comment.
"In these elections, the `Namo Namo' people are going out of power and the Jai Bhim ones are coming, which is also the need of the country," Mayawati said.
NaMo is a Hindi acronym for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and `Jai Bhim' is the slogan used by followers of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar.
The BSP supremo said the Dalits have long left the Congress and the BJP.
Akhilesh Yadav accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of creating a gulf of hatred in the country.
The BJP wants to divide society to gain power in the manner in which the British divided us," he said.
Yadav said he did not need to give a certificate of the work done by him when he was chief minister, claiming there has been development when the SP or the BSP has run the state.
"The BJP says the borders are safe as it is their government at the Centre, but I want to tell them that the borders and the country are safe because of our brave soldiers, he said.
Governments keep coming and going but the jawans posted at the borders keep the country safe," the SP leader added.
The BSP, the SP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal have forged an alliance for the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The meeting at Badaun was the second joint rally held by the alliance, after the one in Saharanpur's Deoband where Mayawati urged Muslims not to let their vote split.
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In biggest haul, drugs worth Rs 51 cr seized in Meghalaya, 2 held
Shillong (PTI): The Meghalaya Police seized drugs worth over Rs 51 crore, the biggest haul of narcotics in the state so far, in East Jaintia Hills district and arrested two Mizoram-based persons in this connection, a senior officer said on Saturday.
The seizure was made during a coordinated naka-checking conducted by the police and Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) personnel in the Ratacherra area on Friday, he said.
During the operation, a vehicle with three persons, including the driver, on board was intercepted and searched in accordance with due legal procedures.
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Upon checking, 19 plastic soap cases, containing suspected heroin weighing 203.7 grams, were recovered from the possession of one of the three persons, the officer said.
The search of the vehicle led to the recovery of a blue-coloured trolley bag belonging to another occupant of the vehicle.
Suspected crystal meth (methamphetamine) tablets weighing 10.145 kilograms were found in the bag, the police officer said.
'Meth' tablets are banned in India.
Two of the three occupants of the vehicle were arrested, and a preliminary investigation suggested that they are part of an interstate and cross-border drug trafficking syndicate, the officer said.
"The total value of the seized contraband is estimated to be around Rs 51.13 crore", ANTF chief Vikash Kumar told PTI.
The arrested persons hail from Mizoram, he said.
A case has been registered at the ANTF police station, and an investigation is underway to establish the forward and backward linkages related to the seizure, the officer added.
