BJP leader Yogi Adityanath. (PTI)

Uttar Pradesh elections have acquired greater urgency as they head towards a conclusion and that is reflected in the increasingly volatile statements being made by all concerned. From PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Kabristaan-Shamshaan, Diwali-Ramzan’ comments to UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s ‘donkeys of Gujarat’ jibe in which he also roped in Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, there looks to be no end in sight to the war of words. Adding his bit to the equation is the mercurial Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Yogi Adityanath, who took PM Modi accusations against the Samajwadi Party government forward and dubbed its popular free laptop distribution scheme as ‘communal’. The BJP has accused the Samajwadi Party as well as Congress of playing ‘vote-bank politics’ directed at Muslims and to a lesser extent the Dalits.

In an interview to NDTV, Yogi Adityanath, who is known to make comments that are extreme in nature, also said, “Samajwadi Party uses communal grounds to distribute laptops, power. Power supply on Diwali should be four times more than on Eid.”

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Earlier, addressing a poll rally in Fatehpur in UP, PM Modi stressed that there should be “no discrimination on the basis of caste and religion” and asserted that inclusive growth was his government’s mantra. Modi further stated that if there is electricity in graveyards and during Ramzan, electricity must also be available in a crematorium and during Diwali. Opposition parties hit out at the Prime Minister stating his comment as communal and planned to move the Election Commission. However after much hue and cry Congress backed out and said that the EC should itself be taking action against the safron party.

Days before the crucial seven-phased UP elections started , Samajwadi Party leader and the state’s Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, in its party manifesto, mentioned that if SP forms the government they will be provideing free laptops, pressure cookers and monthly pensions.