Amit Shah rally: BJP supporters chant 'Jai Sri Ram' slogans in front of mosque in Gorakhpur

The BJP's strike rate in the region, especially in Gorakhpur and neighbouring districts, will also have a bearing on the future stake of its Hindutva face. Photo: ABP News

NEW DELHI: BJP supporters took to the streets of Gorakhpur on Thursday and raised slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Gorakhpur me rehna hai, to yogi-yogi kehna hai' in a front of a mosque in a Muslim majority area of the city minutes before Party President Amit Shah's roadshow. In the Parliamentary constituency of Yogi Adityanath, who's the mascot of the party's Hindutva-wrapped agenda of development in Uttar Pradesh, his supporters with BJP flags in hand indulge in sloganeering which offended the localities. "This is wrong and unacceptable. It's an attempt to vitiate the atmosphere. They can say 'BJP Zindabad' or 'Modi Zindabad', we have no issues with it but chanting 'Jai Sri Ram' in front of mosque is wrong," a resident of the area said. "They are creating an atmosphere of communalism by doing this. Why should we chant 'Yogi Yogi'?, he added. Gorakhpur MP Adityanath, who heads a large number of religious and charitable bodies functioning under the name of Guru Gorakhnath, is criss-crossing the region, addressing anywhere between six to eight meetings. The BJP is hopeful that his Hindutva pitch will help it bring together an amalgamation of upper castes and sections of backward castes and Dalits. The BJP's strike rate in the region, especially in Gorakhpur and neighbouring districts, will also have a bearing on the future stake of its Hindutva face. Around 1.72 crore voters, including 94.60 lakh men and 77.84 lakh women, are eligible to cast their votes in the sixth phase of polling, which would decide the fate of 635 candidates. The districts going to polls in this phase are Mau, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Azamgarh and Ballia. The party won only 11 of these seats in 2012. (With PTI inputs)