Smriti Irani defends Yogi's 'abba jaan' remark, Akhilesh says it reflects his values
Lucknow(PTI): Union minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday defended the controversial "abba jaan" remark by Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, saying it is his constitutional right to put forward his views.
Earlier at the same symposium where Irani spoke, Samajwadi Party Yadav said the remark reflects "sanskar" (values) held by the CM.
Adityanath had made the comment at a programme in Kushingar on Saturday, saying people who say "abba jaan" used to digest the ration earlier, an apparent attack against the Muslim community and the Samajwadi Party.
Speaking at the "Times Now-Navbharat" symposium, Irani said,"If you believe that the chief minister has the constitutional right to put fourth issues within the limit of the Constitution and work in the service of people without any discrimination, then why do you want to control it."
The Amethi MP flayed "appeasement politics" and reminded about a statement of an opposition leader that Muslims should have first claim on resources.
Smriti Irani also highlighted development works carried by the Narendra Modi government in the country and Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh.
Of the target of building 10 crore toilets across the country, two crore has been constructed in UP alone, she said.
Earlier in the day, Akhilesh said commenting over the controversy, "That is the 'sanskar' (values) of Yogiji. I too could have said something but Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) has inculcated values in us so as not to use such language."
Akhilesh coined a new term for the adage M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) associated with his party, saying it stands for Mahila-Youth.
The women and the youth will help form the government of the Samajwadi Party, he said when asked if the AIMIM led by Asaduddin Owaisi will eat into his Mulsim votes.
Yadav also said nobody is against the Ram temple but the BJP wants to contest the elections in its name.
Taking a dig at Adityanath, he said, "Our CM says that he will give tablets. Till now, which tablet was he giving? Is it a tablet for fever?"
Asserting that his party will get 400 seats in the 2022 UP Assembly elections, Akhilesh said when the BJP can get 300-plus seat, then why can't his party get it.
He said the SP speaks about development while the BJP knows how to mislead people.
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Second phase of LS polls: Polling on Friday for 89 seats in 13 states
New Delhi (PTI): Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 89 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
All 20 seats of Kerala will go to polls besides 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 7 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats each in Assam and Bihar, 3 seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and 1 seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
A total of 1206 candidates with four from Outer Manipur constituency will contest elections in this phase, campaigning for which ended Wednesday evening.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and actor-turned-politician Arun Govil, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh (Cong), and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (JDS) are among the key candidates while BJP's Hema Malini, Om Birla and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat seeking a hat-trick of wins from their respective constituencies.
The first of the seven-phase elections held last Friday for 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories saw a voter turnout of around 65.5 per cent.
After Friday's phase, polling will be over in Kerala, Rajasthan and Tripura. In the first phase on April 19, polling was completed in all seats of Tamil Nadu (39), Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1) and Lakshadweep (1).
In 2019, the NDA had won 56 of these 89 seats and the UPA 24. Six of these seats have been redrawn as part of the delimitation exercise.
In Kerala, 2,77,49,159 people are eligible to cast their votes and out of them more than five lakh are first-time voters.
Gandhi is the sitting MP from Wayanad and is pitted against CPI's Annie Raja and BJP's K Surendran.
Tharoor is aiming to win the Thiruvananthapuram seat for the fourth time. He is pitted against Chandrasekhar from the BJP and CPI's Pannyan Raveendran.
Malini, who has represented the Mathura constituency since 2014, is contesting against Congress's Mukesh Dhangar while Om Birla, a two-time MP from Kota, is facing Prahlad Gunjal of the Congress.
Union minister Shekhawat is eyeing a third win from the Jodhpur seat and is pitted against Congress candidate Karan Singh Uchiyarda.
Tejasvi Surya, the sitting MP for Bangalore South and the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), will face Congress's Sowmya Reddy.
Former chief minister of Chhattisgarh and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel is contesting from Rajnandgaon, a stronghold of the BJP for over 30 years.
Govil, famous for portraying Lord Ram's character in Ramayan TV series, is making his electoral debut against BSP's Devvrat Kumar Tyagi and SP's Sunita Verma.
The contest for the Alappuzha seat in Kerala has turned into a prestige battle for the Congress with All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K C Venugopal’s return to the Lok Sabha poll fray after 2014 as the party looks to wrest the only seat it lost to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in its landslide 19-1 victory in Kerala in the 2019 polls.
Venugopal has not lost any major election in his career. He won the Alappuzha Assembly seat thrice in a row in 1996, 2001, and 2006 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Alappuzha in 2009 and 2014.
In 2019, he did not contest after the party elevated him to the post of the AICC general secretary.
