A day before phase 1 of 2024 Lok Sabha elections, chief minister Yogi Adityanath hit the campaign trail in Satha-Chaurasi belt of western Uttar Pradesh and peppered his speech liberally with references to Pakistan and the “surya tilak” on Ram Lalla idol in Ayodhya in an effort to woo voters.

Holding three back-to-back rallies in Bulandshahr, Meerut and the handloom town of Pilkhuwa to support Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Ghaziabad Lok Sabha candidate Atul Garg, the chief minister said, “I bow to this region which is known for its role in the 1857 freedom struggle and also for the martyrs who happily took to the gallows for the nation.”

Adityanath recounted the development works taken up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014 and exhorted the crowd to vote for Modi a third time to pave the way for more development in Uttar Pradesh.

“Yesterday, you must have seen how seen how Ram was offered “surya tilak”,” the CM said, referring to the sun’s rays illuminating the forehead of the idol in Ram temple in Ayodhya on the occasion of Ram Navami, by using mirrors and lenses.“It was after 500 years that Ram Lalla celebrated his day of birth on his land… Would this have been possible or would the Ram Temple have been constructed if SP or BSP or Congress was in power?” Adityanath said.

He said the opposition parties only brought UP a spate of riots and curfew but the situation has changed under the BJP as there is development and a safe environment in the state.

“Before 2014, there were complaints of deaths due to hunger. Modi ji came and gave benefits of policies, including free ration to 80 crore people, to everyone,” Adityanath said.

“Pakistan was created after breaking Bharat. We lost much land, even more than the population. While Bharat is providing free ration to 80 crore people, Pakistan’s 22 crore population is on verge of hunger and they are in dire need of food… ,” the chief minister said, trying to draw a parallel between the two countries.

The Ghaziabad parliamentary constituency goes to polls on April 26 and Dhaulana is a sensitive segment for the BJP as it was the only one where gen VK Singh (retired) came second in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Adityanath’s rally was held close to Satha Chaurasi belt, which 60 villages of Shishodias and 84 villages of Tomar Rajputs.This region also has a good number of people serving in the defence forces.

On Wednesday, Rajputs held a huge “Kshatirya Swabhiman Mahasammelan” in nearby Dhaulana and voiced their discontent against the BJP, over terming Samrat Mihir Bhoj a Gujjar and also over the denial of tickets to Rajputs. A series of panchayats have been held to voice ‘Kshtriya discontent’ since April 7 in western UP areas of Manota, Sisoli, Kheda-Sardhana and Dhaulana, among others.

“The CM is holding small election rallies in western UP and it does not look nice for a CM. He is basically sent to firefight the discontent against the BJP in western UP. BJP should also remember what happened during riots in Godhra and Muzaffarnagar. In any rally, the CM is raising past issues but not revealing his government’s report card to voters,” said Vinit Tyagi, district president, Congress.