Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath today slammed the Congress for playing the caste card at the expense of development even as he accused the party of using Karnataka as its ATM.

Addressing a public rally here , UP chief minister took a jibe at his Karnataka counterpart, Siddaramaiah, saying he was only now recalling his Hindu roots. However, calling himself a Hindu will not suffice till he continues to endorse eating beef, Adityanath claimed.Hinduism was a way of life and it did not allow eating of beef. “If you (Siddaramaiah) consider yourself a Hindu, then why do you promote beef eating? , the UP chief minister wanted to know.

His visit ,the second in a week to the IT capital, marks the launch of BJP’s poll campaign for the 224 seats in the State Assembly, elections to which are scheduled for May this year. His visit coincides with the parivartan yatra which BJP’s chief ministerial candidate and state unit president, B S Yeddyurappa, has been holding ,criss crossing the state to mobilise support for the party.Accordinto him, Karnataka is losing out on development as the Congress party is using the state as its ATM instead. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said ,was giving emphasis on development, and for the youths and farmers in the state to reap the benefits of such a model, it was imperative to bring the BJP to power in Karnataka.

“The party has become a burden…a problem for the nation,” Adityanath claimed.Exhorting the people to vote for the BJP, he said across the country, the Congress was being eased out of power ,evidenced by the recent results of assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, to name but two states. That the party’s model of development had become a benchmark was clear from its ability to retain Gujarat for the sixth time, he asserted.Yogi Adityanath said if the ruling party at the centre and the state were to be the same, it would become much easier for the latter to get the benefit of the Union government’s schemes.

An obvious reference to the fact that invariably the states and the centre have been at loggerheads on allocation for various schemes if different parties are at the helm
Accordingly, he urged the people to ensure that like at the centre,in Karnataka too they plumbed for the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections.In this context, he slammed chief minister Siddaramiah for claiming recently that he was as much a Hindu as those in the BJP. He said this was similar to Rahul Gandhi’s sudden decision to visit temples in Gujarat during elections in that state.

Lashing out at the Congress for dividing people by playing the caste card, he said that as many as 22 Hindus had been killed during Congress rule in the state ,a clear evidence of the deteriorating law and order situation in Karnataka.

In sharp contrast, he said the situation had improved drastically ever since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh,where law and order was a major issue earlier.
He blamed the Congress for disrupting Rajya Sabha over the Centre’s move to get a bill on triple talaq passed and alleged that the party was “anti-Muslim” and “anti-women”.