Will Pakistan Decide Who Indians Should Vote For, Asks Yogi Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday accused Arvind Kejriwal of having a "partnership" with Pakistan and appealed to the people in Delhi to not vote for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief as it will make Pakistan happy.

Ramping up his attack on the Shaheen Bagh protest,  the BJP star campaigner said the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is merely an excuse for people to vent their anger against the scrapping of Article 370.

"You must have seen their partnership on (Article) 370. Arvind Kejriwal used to speak in the same voice as Imran Khan on Article 370. You must have heard it. Now when elections are taking place in Delhi, who is speaking in favour of Arvind Kejriwal? It is the ministers of Pakistan. They are aware that Kejriwal is feeding biryani to protesters at Shaheen Bagh," he said, referring to Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry's tweet asking Indians to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Yogi Adityanath addressed three rallies on Monday in the national capital ahead of the assembly elections.

"Will Pakistan decide who Indians should vote for. If voting for Kejriwal will make Pakistan happy, should it be done," he asked at a rally in Mehrauli.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister said his Delhi counterpart Mr Kejriwal has become a "toy in the hands of antisocial and anti-India elements".

Addressing a rally in Vikaspuri in west Delhi, he said Mr Kejriwal is not bothered about key issues such as providing clean drinking water but is concerned about Shaheen Bagh, the anti-citizenship amendment act protest site.

At another rally in Uttam Nagar in west Delhi, Yogi Adityanath said Arvind Kejriwal has played with the emotions of the people of Delhi for the last five years.

"He obstructed the development of Delhi. And knowingly and unknowingly, he became a toy in the hands of anti-social and anti-India elements," he said.

The protest at Shaheen Bagh, he said, has disrupted traffic across the capital.

"A guest with an appointment to meet him at 9.30 am could only reach at 11. He told me he had left as early as 7 am but got stuck because of the traffic in Shaheen Bagh," he said.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also slammed Mr Kejriwal for "sympathising" with elements who he said gave anti-India slogans in Jawaharlal Nehru University.