Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday claimed that the UP CM Yogi Adityanath did not take a dip in the Ganga as he knew the river is dirty. “The BJP spent crores on cleaning the Ganga. But CM Yogi Adityanath knew that the Ganga is dirty. That’s why he didn’t take a dip,” Yadav said.
“The question is, will Mother Ganga ever be clean? Funds flowed out, but the river hasn’t been cleaned,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Varanasi, however, offered prayers and took a dip in the Ganga at Lalita Ghat on Monday before inaugurating the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project.
One of the highlights of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Varanasi on Monday was a plunge in the Ganga at the launch of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project. While he accompanied him to the inauguration, he did not accompany the Prime Minister to the dip.
Later, he shared a photo of the Prime Minister kneeling in the river, offering his prayers. Yogi Adityanath attacked political opponents in his speech at the opening of the 800 crores on Monday, blaming them for the “filth and congestion” that have been a blight on the country’s spiritual capital for decades. The opposition has maintained that the BJP’s five-year rule has done little to ease the situation. They claim that even the Prime Minister’s “Swacchata Abhiyan,” which he began shortly after taking office in 2014, failed to clean the city.
Akhilesh Yadav’s statements on Tuesday were the latest in a series of political volleys between the SP and the BJP, the two leading candidates in the Uttar Pradesh election, which is set to take place next year. Previously, he insulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming that people spend their dying days in Varanasi. When asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Varanasi, Akhilesh Yadav told reporters in Etawah, “That [Banaras] is a place to dwell.” Banaras is where many spend their dying days.”
