On his first ever visit to Malda district, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath spoke on the Hindutva lines and appealed to people to cast their votes in favour of the BJP and throw out Mamata Banerjee, who he said was leading a “corrupt government.”

Addressing a huge gathering at the ground near Gazole College, Adityanath touched upon almost all issues related to Hindutva, from Ram Mandir to ‘love jihad.’

Even as he spoke, the audience greeted his words with the ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogan.

Mentioning that Malda was the sacred land of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he also called for restoration of the cultural heritage of Bengal, which it once enjoyed, “but was lost in the present times.”

Adityanath also launched a scathing attack on the Trinamul Congress government over what he called was politics of appeasement of a particular community.

“Durga Puja was once stopped for Muharram in this state by the government and the court had to say that both the festivals would be observed simultaneously, as it had been done in UP. Even chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ is not welcomed here by the government. Moreover, the appeasement is compromising national security,” Adityanath said.

The UP CM’s helicopter from Siliguri reached the meeting ground at around 1:30 pm, while other BJP leaders like Sayantan Basu, Arvind Menon, Debashree Choudhury, Hiran Chatterjee, Babul Supriyo, and Arjun Singh were on the dais.

“We stopped cattle smuggling and illegal cow slaughterhouses within 24 hours of the formation of the government in UP. Anti-social elements rampant in the time of the previous government were seen seeking apology from people in every area,” Adityanath said.

He said cases of ‘love jihad’ were still reported in Bengal, though he claimed that the same had stopped in Uttar Pradesh with the enforcement of a new law.

“If Modiji wanted to give shelter to Hindu, Buddhist, Sikhs of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan in India, then why did clashes break out in Bengal and not in any other state? We have come to power in UP in 2017 and there has been not a single such clash since then,” he said.

“Previously, youths from UP searched for jobs in Bengal and now it is just the opposite due to the bad governance here. Now Bengal needs a double engine government, one at the state and one at the Centre, so that the state flourishes in all aspects and its glory restored,” the CM added.

Adityanath also recalled Swami Vivekananada, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Shyamaprasad Mukherjee for their contribution to India.