Lucknow: The husband of a BJP chairman candidate from Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh has threatened Muslim voters to either vote for the couple or prepare themselves for dire consequences.
Shashi Srivastava's husband Ranjeet Bahadur Srivastava, a BJP leader, addressed a gathering on November 13 and said that he had mentioned this before "this is a BJP government and not a Samajwadi government". The speech comes against the backdrop of prospective municipal elections in a state where BJP came out with flying colours in the Assembly elections nine months ago.
Srivastava warned the people that they didn't have the option of going to the Superintendent of Police or District Magistrate who would help them. “You (Muslims) do not have anyone to be on your side in Bharatiya Janata Party. If you do not vote for BJP candidates, if you do not vote for my wife, not even Samajwadi Party will be able to save you. That is why I am saying to Muslims, vote for us. If you vote for BJP you will be happy, else you will have to face problems,” Srivastava said.
The BJP leader was sharing the stage with Minister of Social Welfare and Minister of SC & ST Welfare Ramapati Shastri and Cabinet Minister Dara Singh Chauhan, who didn't raise any objection to Srivastav's remark.
Srivastava, speaking to ETV later, expounded that he didn't threaten Muslims but tried to persuade them to vote for the BJP. "I was just trying to make them understand that there is a huge difference between Hindu and Muslims and these differences should come to an end," he said.
However, seconds later, Srivastava added that if Muslims didn't understand, it's not the Hindus who would regret but they themselves. "If someone thinks that I am threatening, I am ready to threaten a thousand times more"
Srivastava claimed that BJP was a party of "Mards" -- PM Narendra Modi, CM yogi Adityanath, and he himself. "I won the election last time with 675 Hindu votes, remaining 33% votes didn't matter. I am not begging for their (Muslims) votes."
The Officer on Special Duty of State Election Commission, JP Singh, said, "We have not received any formal complaint in this regard. I have requested a copy of the video, and only after seeing the video, the decision on any punishment will be taken.”
When contacted, District Magistrate Barabanki Akhilesh Tiwari said that he hadn't received any complaint in the matter. He also said that appropriate action will be taken if he receives a complaint. Meanwhile, SP Barabanki Anil Kumar Singh said that Election Commission should take note of such things and take proper action.
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