As polling was underway for the second phase of the UP Assembly polls on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Opposition over a TMC leader’s purported remark on “not allowing consolidation of Hindu votes” in Goa, which also voted on Monday. Addressing a poll meeting in Akbarpur in Kanpur Dehat district, the PM said: “A TMC leader said her party has forged an alliance so that the Hindu votes in Goa could be divided. You see this audacity (‘himmat’). Is this democracy? Is this secularism? Aap khule aam, hindu vote ko baatna chahte hain, toh aap kiske vote ikkhata karna chahte hon? (You are openly saying you want to divide the Hindu votes. Then whose votes are you trying to gather?”. He was apparently referring to TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s alleged remarks that her party has prevented the consolidation of Hindu votes by tying up with the MGP in Goa. The TMC has backed Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh and its chief Mamata Banerjee recently visited Lucknow to show her support to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Mamata is set to visit Varanasi, the PM’s Lok Sabha constituency, to campaign for the SP. In his speech, the PM asserted that the BJP was coming to power again in UP with “people uniting above caste” and especially Muslim women, who he claimed, were silently supporting his party. Referring to the abolition of triple talaq nearly three years ago, Modi said: “My Muslims sisters, without making much noise are silently coming out to give their blessings to Modi… When a Muslim girl came back from her maika (native home) empty-handed, she was instantly given triple talaq. . Today, we have given to every Muslim sister a law to protect themselves against triple talaq.”
