UP deputy CM Keshav Maurya evades comment on Yogi Adityanath's ‘Batenge to Katenge’ slogan

Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Saturday refused to comment on chief minister Yogi Adityanath's ‘Batenge To Katenge’ slogan, which has triggered controversy in the poll season.

"Do you, the media, want to create divisions between us," PTI quoted the deputy chief minister as saying to the reporters in Phulpur.

"If the honourable chief minister has made a statement, why do you need a comment from me? Whatever the chief minister says, any questions regarding his statement should be directed to him. We all work together for the development of the state," Maurya added.

The deputy chief minister also took aim at opposition parties, alleging that they were trying to impede India's progress.

"The opposition parties want to halt the rise of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and prevent India from becoming a developed nation. But despite their opposition, the people of India have made Modiji the prime minister and strengthened the BJP," he added.

Earlier, during a public address, Adityanath had said, “We had to wait 500 years in Ayodhya because we were divided. We endured humiliation in Kashi and Mathura due to our divisions. When we were divided, we were cut. Today, the biggest challenge facing India is those who seek to divide us in the name of caste.”

Opposition slams Yogi's ‘Batenge to Katenge’ slogan, BJP allies divided

Opposition parties including Congress and the Samajwadi Party have hit out at the UP chief minister over his slogan.

“RSS and BJP are the ones who divide the country and the poor. Now they are saying, 'Batenge to Katenge.' They are the ones dividing the poor. They have their government at the Centre, and they are ruling the country,” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said at a rally in poll-bound Jharkhand's Simdega.

ALSO READ: “I don't approve of ‘Batenge toh Katenge.’ My politics is different,” says Pankaja Munde

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, called it a “negative slogan for India”.

However, BJP ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar opposed the slogan.

ALSO READ: After Yogi’s barbs, Ajit says communal harmony strong in Maharashtra

“People of Maharashtra have always strived to maintain communal harmony," Pawar said in Pune.

“I have expressed my disagreement on this (Batenge toh Katenge) in a public rally and media interviews. Some BJP leaders have also expressed the same. 'Sabka saath, Sabka vikas' means together with all, development for all...Now, 'Ek hain toh safe hain...I see it from this angle,” the Maharashtra deputy chief minister told in an interview to ANI.

(With PTI, ANI inputs)