Lucknow: On one hand, UP CM Yogi Adityanath is busy wooing Dalits ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, on the other, ministers in his cabinet are making comments demeaning the community.

A minister in the UP Cabinet Rajendra Pratap Singh on Tuesday said, “The way Lord Ram blessed Shabari by eating her berries, BJP leaders too are blessing Dalits by going to their homes.”

Singh was addressing a chaupal at Gadhmau village in Badagaon Block of Jhansi district and gave the statement before he was to go for dinner at a Dalit’s house.

“I am a Kshatriya and it is in my blood to work for the safety of religion and society. I would like to thank PM Narendra Modi, who gave us direction. You can see the love and happiness of these (Dalit) people. You can see it on the family’s face, is it as if they have got something they would never have been able to afford,” said Singh after his dinner at the Dalit household.

The statement from BJP MLA of Patti comes days after CM Yogi Adityanath spent a night in a Dalit village and ate at a Dalit’s house in Uttar Pradesh. Many other senior leaders, including Deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, have also been visiting Dalit houses lately. With Lok Sabha elections due next year, Yogi has instructed party leaders to spend maximum time in Dalit villages in the wake of massive country-wide protests that was launched by the community recently.