Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Tuesday said that he had no reason to celebrate Eid since he was a Hindu, The Indian Express reported.
Adityanath was delivering the motion of thanks to Governor Ram Naik’s address in the state Assembly, when he recalled that a journalist had once asked him whether he would celebrate Eid too. “I said I don’t celebrate Eid,” he said, according to the Hindustan Times. “I am a Hindu and I am proud of it. If anybody wants to celebrate Eid peacefully, the government will cooperate and provide security.”
“There is nothing wrong in being proud of being a Hindu,” the chief minister added. “We are not hypocrites who put on the ritual thread at home and don another cap when we are out.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader told the Opposition that they will bring down the “red cap” – referring to the Samajwadi Party – in the upcoming bye-elections in the state just like his party had brought down the “red flag” (Left Front) in Tripura. “This is the time for saffron,” he said amid uproar in the Assembly.
The Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats were vacated by Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya when they were elected to the Legislative Council in order to be part of the BJP government in the state. The polls will be conducted on March 11, while the votes will be counted on March 14.
The Bahujan Samaj Party has promised to support Samajwadi Party candidate Praveen Kumar Nishad in the bye-elections.
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