By PTI
PRAYAGRAJ: BJP supporters greeted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with the slogan of “Bulldozer Baba zindabad” as he held his roadshow here on Friday in support of his Cabinet colleague Sidharth Nath Singh’s candidature from City (West) assembly seat.
Nearly two-km-long roadshow of the chief minister starting from Karbala Chauraha and ending at Nakhash Kona Chauraha of the city was attended by “lakhs” of people, eyewitnesses said.
During the entire roadshow, which started at 5 pm and ended at 6 pm, people carrying the BJP’s saffron flags rent the air with slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” and Bulldozer Baba Zindabad”.
The new term for the chief minister was first heard from Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who, in a YouTube video, has claimed that a prestigious English daily has changed Yogi Adityanath’s name to Baba Bulldozer.
The term purportedly owes its origin to the extensive use of bulldozers by the Uttar Pradesh government for demolishing illegal properties of criminals in the state.
The roadshow interestingly began near a place where Adityanath had done the bhumi pujan’ for a residential complex for common people on a piece of land acquired by the state government from the possession of former MP Atique Ahmed.
The roadshow was led by over half a dozen horse-mounted BJP workers carrying the party’s saffron flags, followed by other party workers beating drums and blowing trumpets.
A tableau of Lord Ram, his wife Sita and Lord Hanuman too formed part of the roadshow with a large number of women marching along and the people showering flower petals from their rooftops on Chief Minister Adityanath and party’s candidate Siddharth Nath Singh.
The event also had some tense moments as a convoy of Samajwadi Party candidate Richa Singh and her supporters sought to crossed its path with the roadshow route, resulting in some angry exchanges between supporters of the two parties.
The police, however, managed to control the situation by diverting the SP candidate’s convoy to an alternative route.
After the completion of the roadshow, the chief minister urged people to vote for the BJP to ensure that the state continued to be ruled by a “double-engine” government and continue progressing at a fast pace.
The assembly segments of the Prayagraj district go to the polls on February 27 during the fifth phase of the state assembly elections, the electioneering for which ended Friday.
