The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to be bent on rooting out the alleged problem of 'Love Jihad' from Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP has made MP Yogi Adityanath as one of the lead campaigners for the by-polls in the state, who had allegedly made an extremely incendiary speech against the minority community.
The announcement comes just a day after a video reportedly from a 2007 speech in Azamgarh surfaced in which Adityanath is seen exhorting supporters that "if one Hindu girl is converted, we will convert 100 Muslim girls. If one Hindu is killed, we will kill 100 Muslims".
"I am completely against Love Jihad. We won't tolerate what's happening to Hindu women in the name of love jihad," Adityanath told NDTV.
The issue of conversions of Hindu women to Islam seems to be concering the BJP, which took it up discreetly during its state executive committee meet in UP over the weekend.
While the party did not directly refer to the term 'Love Jihad' in its political resolution, it did state that "rape of women of a particular community and involvement of people from another particular community in these incidents in the state, is either a coincidence or it is being done in a planned manner; that is an issue of concern".
By putting Adityanath in charge of the by-poll campaign, who is also facing charges of inciting communal tension in Gorakhpur in 2007, BJP has shown that it will not shy away from raking up communally sensitive issues.
BJP state president Laxmikant, who was keen on addressing the 'Love Jihad' issue in the party meet, will be among the lead campaigners with the BJP MP.
The by-elections for 11 Assembly seats are due to be held on 13 September. Some of the areas that will go to the polls are extremely sensitive to communal issues, especially Saharanpur Nagar, and Adityanath's campaign in these places could raise serious concerns of law and order.
The Gorakhpur MP's campaign already promises to be communally charged, as he told NDTV about his agenda. "We will campaign in UP...False cases have been registered against Hindus, they're being sent to jail, insulted. The Samajwadi Party is responsible for this," he said.
