UP polls: Nitish Kumar will divide votes, says Amit Shah in Varanasi

Varanasi: Cautioning the people of Uttar Pradesh to vote sensibly, BJP national president Amit Shah today called Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar a "vote katwa" who will try to divide votes to thwart BJP's victory in the 2017 Assembly polls.

Mr Shah claimed that Mr Kumar is campaigning in the state to help the ruling Samajwadi Party to form its government yet again by dividing the votes and stopping BJP to win.

He targeted the Bihar chief minister, saying when he was unable to handle Patna, "which is mired in crime" what will he do in Uttar Pradesh.

"...Even Nitish knows that they cannot win even one seat in assembly polls, but they are campaigning in UP. People like him are working as "vote katwa" (vote splitters) here," Mr Shah said.

"I appeal to the people of UP to be cautious while voting as such people only want to divide votes," he told the 'Jan Swabhiman rally', organised by NDA ally Apna Dal to mark the 67th birth anniversary of its founder Sone Lal Patel. Like Mr Patel, Mr Kumar belongs to the backward Kurmi caste.

Accusing the Samajwadi Party of patronising leaders with criminal background, Mr Shah said: "Akhilesh, your party is full of leaders like Mukhtar (Ansari), Afzal (Ansari), Ateeq (Ahmad), Azam (Khan) and so on. If you will throw such leaders out of your party, then there would be no one left in the SP."

Mr Shah said the ongoing tussle between uncle Shivpal Yadav and nephew Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav over the revocation of merger of Quami Ekta Dal with SP was well understood by the people.

"Akhilesh thinks people of UP cannot understand all this, but now they (people) have understood (the drama)," he said. Shah alleged the Samajwadi Party was running a "land grabbing industry" in the state and the government was lending support to its leaders involved in usurping the land of the poor.