Uttar Pradesh

BJP

Manohar Parrikar

RSS

AAP

Ashutosh

Congress

Akali Dal

Despite the Centre issuing a diktat against celebrating the surgical strikes that India carried out in Pakistan last week,BJP is going all out to do just that. And the stateis not even apologetic about it.Posters celebrating the strikes have come up in several places across the state and the politicians will also felicitate Defence Ministerin Agra and Lucknow today.UP BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya stated that he is unaware of the posters but he has no qualms about felicitating Parrikar."The surgical strikes are a matter of pride for the nation. We cannot felicitate the army, that is why we are honouring Parrikar. Why should anyone object to it?" asked Maurya.Significantly, earlier this week, Goa BJP had abandoned plans to felicitate Parrikar after the rebelcamp led by Subhash Velingkar strongly opposed the decision.It is precisely against this “celebration" thatleadervoiced his concerns. He alleged that the BJP was using surgical strikes in posters in the state that will be going to the polls early next year. He demanded that the strikes should not be used as an Assembly election issue and should not be spoken about in rallies at all states that are bound for Assembly polls.spokesperson RPN Singh too warned the BJP against Parrikar politicising the strikes.Congress and AAP leaders in Punjab, another state that is going to polls early next year, also pointed out that the strikes have disturbed voters in the border districts and alleged that the evacuation of the people – being carried out under the orders of the Union Home Ministry - is being used by the Badal administration to intimidate voters"Evacuation is not being done by the Army but by the district administration and the police. People here in Gurudaspur are not willing to believe there is going to be war. People feel it is all being done for political reasons," Congress leader Pratap Bajwa said.Lokhit Abhiyan leader Jagmeet Brar, who is in alliance with AAP, also feels evacuation of people from 1,000 villages is a big political gambit being carried out by the Centre and the Badals in an attempt to reduce the number of votes that AAP will get in the Assembly elections.However,MP Prem Singh Chandumajra insisted that the state government has done a fine job of securing the lives of the people on the border.“People are happy with the administration, the way everything has been handled," he said. So will this reduce the chances of anti-incumbency for the Akalis? "All I can say is people are happy with us. That is why the Congress and AAP are unhappy."