Soon, Akhilesh was facing one of the most persuasive attempts by the BJP to pit the SP firmly against the Muslim community before the UP elections. BJP upholds back narrative Karaana The migration issue which played a key role in the electoral success of the BJP, especially in the politically troubled West UP during the 2017 assembly elections.
even as Yogi Adityanath In November, Home Minister Amit Shah went to Kairana in the streets of the town in Shamli district to launch the BJP’s election campaign and fueled the issue. The SP’s move to field jailed Nahid Hasan in several cases from Kairana gave the BJP an opportunity to take the story further. In June 2016, then BJP MP Hukum Singh released a list of 346 people forced to flee the Muslim-majority UP city of Kairana due to ‘threats and extortion by criminals’.
The BJP continued this argument by highlighting the way in which cases were withdrawn against those accused of terror attacks at Lucknow, Ramjanmabhoomi and Sankat Mochan Mandir in Varanasi in 2012. The BJP’s attack turned two-pronged after a picture of Akhilesh with Shahbad Ahmed, father of Mohammad Saif, one of the perpetrators of the 2008 Ahmedabad terror attack, surfaced.
When Akhilesh decided to contest from Karhal in Mainpuri, the seat of his father Mulayam, the BJP’s demand to portray the SP as a party dominated by Yadav intensified. Singh Yadav, The BJP insisted that Akhilesh only had faith in his family and “a particular caste”.
When Akhilesh tried to neutralize the BJP’s criticism with the slogan ‘Yeh nai sapa hai’, the BJP retorted saying, ‘Yeh nai nahi…ye wahi sach hai’. The slogan sought to thwart Akhilesh’s attempt to project the changed character of the party, which is seen as essentially supported by Yadavs and Muslims.