On the day Congress General Secretary UP (East) compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Duryodhana, senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Nirupam likened the prime minister to the controversial Mughal emperor Aurangzeb who is known to have demolished Hindu temples and imposed jazya tax on Hindus.

Nirupam, on Tuesday, said that PM Modi is a modern day avatar of Aurangzeb while claiming that hundreds of temples, which even Aurangzeb could not touch in the holy city of Varanasi, have been demolished following the instructions of PM Modi, reports ANI.

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Varanasi is the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Modi from where he is the sitting MP and is seeking a second term in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“I feel that the person that people here have chosen, Narendra Modi, is actually the modern-day avatar of Aurangzeb.

“Under the instruction of Prime Minister Modi, several temples were demolished in Varanasi under the garb of carrying out the Kashi Vishwanath corridor project,” charged Nirupam.

Nirupam was in Varanasi campaigning for Congress’s candidate Ajai Rai.

Nirupam also alleged that following the order of the PM a fee of Rs 550 is being charged to get a glimpse of Lord Vishwanath at the temple.

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“Prime Minister Modi has imposed jazya tax on the devotees just to get a glimpse of their lord. What Aurangzeb could not do, Prime Minister Modi has done.”

“I strongly criticize this modern avatar of Aurangzeb,” he said.

Nirupam also tweeted, “बनारस में मोदी राज में भ्रष्ट्राचार की नई ऊंचाईं। बाबा विश्वनाथ मंदिर में पुजारियों की नियुक्ति पर 50000 रुपये रिश्वत लिये जा रहे हैं। जो अपने लोकसभा क्षेत्र को भ्रष्ट्राचार मुक्त नहीं कर पाए,वो देश में भ्रष्ट्राचार क्या मिटाएंगे ? काशी नाराज है। (corruption has reached new level in Banaras under Modi’s rule. A bribe of 50,000 is taken for appointing priests at Baba Vishwanath Temple. The one who could not check corruption in his Lok Sabha constituency how can he remove corruption from the country. Kashi is angry.).”

बनारस में मोदी राज में भ्रष्ट्राचार की नई ऊंचाईं।
बाबा विश्वनाथ मंदिर में पुजारियों की नियुक्ति पर 50000 रुपये रिश्वत लिये जा रहे हैं।
जो अपने लोकसभा क्षेत्र को भ्रष्ट्राचार मुक्त नहीं कर पाए,वो देश में भ्रष्ट्राचार क्या मिटाएंगे ?
काशी नाराज है।

— Sanjay Nirupam (@sanjaynirupam) May 8, 2019

Varanasi will go to polls on May 19 in the seventh and the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections and results will be declared on May 23.