Yogi Adityanath slams Cong over ‘anti-constitutional’ religion-based reservation in poll-bound Karnataka

PTI, Apr 26, 2023, 2:32 PM IST

In his first election rally in poll-bound Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday attacked the Congress over religion-based reservation saying that it was against the Constitution.

He also claimed that no riots took place in Uttar Pradesh in the past six years due to the strong ”double engine government”.

”Congress appeases the Popular Front of India (PFI) and gives religion-based reservation, which is against the Indian Constitution,” Adityanath said during an election rally here in the Vokkaliga heartland, the stronghold of JD(S) headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

He was referring to the four per cent reservation for Muslims under 2B category of the Other Backward Classes, which the BJP government in Karnataka scrapped at the fag end of its tenure saying that religion-based quota has no constitutional backing.

After making 2B redundant, the Karnataka government split the four per cent reservation into two equal parts and increased the two per cent quota each for the two dominant communities of the state, Vokkaligas in 2C and Lingayats in 2D category.

”India was divided on religious lines in 1947. The country cannot endorse religion-based reservation and we are not ready for another partition,” Adityanath said.

The party leader added that the BJP governments at the Centre and Karnataka banned the PFI and had broken the back of the Islamist organisation.

Hailing the development and progress of Uttar Pradesh, he said the ‘double engine’ government – one at the Centre and another in his home state – has shown its might in the strongest possible manner.

”In Uttar Pradesh, security and prosperity is guaranteed. ‘No curfew, no danga, wahan par hai sab changa’ (There is no curfew and no riots. All is well there). In the past six years, no riots took place in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

The concept of ‘Ek Bharat, Sreshtha Bharat’ (One India, Great India) that the BJP believes in, can alone take India forward, he said, adding: ”We don’t believe in appeasement; but in empowerment”.

Karnataka goes to the polls on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.