‘Jinnah-Azam -Mukhtar’ or ‘Jandhan-Aadhar-Mobile’ —take your pick: Amit Shah attacks Samajwadi Party in stronghold Azamgarh

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 13

The BJP on Saturday took on their main rival in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party, in its bastion Azamgarh with Home Minister Amit Shah attacking its “appeasement politics” and asking people there to make a choice between “Jinnah-Azam-Mukhtar” (JAM) or “Jandhan- Aadhar- Mobile” (JAM) and Chief Minister Aditaynath even suggesting a name change for it.

“The Samajwadi Party only has ‘JAM’ of Jinnah, Azam Khan and Mukhtar Ansari on offer for Uttar Pradesh,” said Shah who was in Azamgarh with Adityanath to lay the foundation stone of a state university named after OBC icon Raja Suhel Devndash;a move seen as a counter to main rival, Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav, joining hands with Om Prakash Rajbhar’s party named after Raja Suhel Dev (Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party).

Azamgarh is SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s constituency.

Referring to Akhilesh Yadav’s “Jinnah” remark Shah said that “Jinnah holds a special relevance for Akhilesh”.

Shah said that under Samajwadi Party Azamgarh was known as a “terror sanctuary and for fundamentalist thinking”.

“It was made the den of anti-national activity. But today, a ‘Maa Saraswati dham ‘(university) is being set up which will change the image of Azamgarh,” Shah said, referring to terrorism cases traced back to Azamgarh.

Adityanath, meanwhile, said setting up of the state university will turn “Azamgarh into Aryamgarh”.

“The new state university will ensure Azamgarh definitely becomes Aryamgarh,” he said.

Hitting out at SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh, Adityanath said Azamgarh may have given two chief ministers and also sent them to the Lok Sabha but its identity and image did not improve. “Before 2014, a person from Azamgarh had problem in even getting a hotel room anywhere in the country,” he claimed.

The rally saw Shah re-endorsing Adityanath as the BJP’s CM candidate for polls next year, urging people to vote for the party and make him the Chief Minister again while praising development works and law and order during his tenure.