YOGI TURNS TO HANUMAN CHALISA

LUCKNOW: Directed by the Election Commission not to campaign for 72 hours, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday headed to Lucknow’s famous Hanuman Setu temple.

Adityanath, who is also the chief priest of Gorakhnath temple in eastern Uttar Pradesh, was at the temple for nearly 25 minutes where he recited Hanuman Chalisa. Refusing to take any questions from media persons, Adityanath responded to queries and greetings with a smile. The CM had courted controversy over his ‘Ali, Bajrang Bali’ remark, in apparent response to BSP chief Mayawati’s speech during an election rally.

Two days later, according to the Election Commission, Yogi Adityanath told a rally in Meerut about Mayawati’s speech and said: “If the Congress, SP and BSP have faith in ‘Ali’, we have faith in ‘Bajrang Bali’, the followers of Bajrang Bali will not tolerate them.” This invited a 72-hour gag order for Adityanath and 48 hours for Mayawati. The ban on Adityanath is for a longer duration because this is his second code violation. The EC noted that it had already advised Adityanath to be more careful about his public statements on April 5 after his controversial speech that allegedly politicised the airstrike across the LoC. In his response to EC notice, Adityanath said he had used the term ‘green virus’ to expose the opposition which despite its secular posturing had made a blatantly crass appeal to Muslims to vote for the alliance.

He also justified his remark saying he was his deity in whom he had immense faith.