Monday (October 14): Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya has said voting in favour of the BJP will mean “dropping of a nuclear bomb on Pakistan”.
“By pressing the lotus button (BJP’s poll symbol), not only Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Narendra Mehta will be benefitted, but it will mean that a nuclear bomb will by itself get dropped on Pakistan,” Maurya said.
He was addressing a public gathering in support of BJP candidate Narendra Mehta from Mira Bhayander Assembly segment in Maharashtra’s Thane district on Sunday night.
He further said, “These will be the first elections to be held in the country after the scrapping of Article 370, hence have immense importance. The results of these polls will reveal people’s ‘rashtra bhakti’ (patriotism).”
The entire world will closely watch the upcoming Assembly elections in these two states as it will indicate the real patriotism of Indians, the BJP leader said.
Taking a dig at the opposition, he said, “Goddess Laxmi does not sit on the palm of hand, bicycle or clock (in an apparent reference to poll symbols of Congress, Samajwadi Party and NCP respectively), but she sits on a lotus, which is a symbol of development.”
He said leaders of the opposition Congress and NCP were pained when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh performed ‘shastra puja’ on the Rafale fighter jet, emblazoned it with an ‘Om’ and placed lemons under the aircraft’s wheels.
Maurya also said that BJP’s rebels and detractors should not be under the impression that they will get ‘sympathy votes’.
“They will not get a single vote in this election from sympathisers of the BJP,” he added.
