Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday slammed his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath for his " Lord Hanuman is Dalit" remark asserting that "religion and politics are two different things which should not be mixed."
In an exclusive interview to ANI, Baghel stated: "They are now asking for votes in the name of Lord Ram, Hanuman, and his caste. How long will they resort to this? And now, they are seeking votes on the name of Gods. Religion and politics are two different things and combining them together is not right."
During campaigning for recently-concluded Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Adityanath, in a poll rally at Alwar, had said, "Hanuman was a forest dweller, deprived and a Dalit. Bajrang Bali worked to connect all Indian communities together, from north to south and east to west."
Baghel further hit out at Adityanath saying the latter did not speak about the issue of cow slaughter during Chhattisgarh election campaign as he knew that the BJP workers were responsible for the same.
"It is unfortunate to say that they are gaining votes in the name of cow. In Chhattisgarh, they did not mention anything about it. They spoke about cow slaughter in BJP-ruled states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat. Their workers are committing cow slaughter. When Yogi ji came here (during campaigning), he did not utter a word on this issue. Why he did not do? Because he knew very well that his party is behind it and he did not want to talk about it," Baghel elaborated.
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