Addressing his first set of rallies for the assembly by-elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tore into the Samajwadi Party and the Congress saying that there had been a ‘divorce’ between the two parties.

At Muzaffarnagar, Adityanath highlighted the lawlessness under the Samajwadi Party saying ‘”Jahan dikhe Sapai, whaan bitiya ghabrayi’”(Where SP is seen, daughters are scared).

The by-election is due in Kundarki Vidhan Sabha in Muzaffarnagar. This is a difficult seat for the BJP and it has been won consecutively thrice by the Samajwadi Party.

Adityanath thus chose to remind the electorate of what the Samajwadi Party rule in the state had looked like. He said that before 2017 (the year the BJP came to power in the state), there was a slogan that whichever car bore a Samajwadi Party flag (jhanda) had in it a goonda.

He also took a jibe at Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s comment on the postponement of the polling date from November 13 to 20.

“Samajwadi Party has been completely exposed,” he said. Yadav had said that the postponement of the election would ensure that the BJP would lose even more badly, though it had been done because of the Kartik Poornima fair.

On the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, he said that there was ‘khat pat’ (disagreement) between the two parties. He accused them of misleading the voters.

“Did you get any benefit of the khatakhat that they had promised”, Adityanath said. This was a reference to Rahul Gandhi’s promise that if the Congress came to power there would be an immediate transfer of cash doles to the poor.

Adityanath also highlighted the achievements of his government saying that jobs were being given on the basis of merit and girls were being given 20 per cent reservation in jobs. “These daughters will set right the goondas of the Samajwadi Party”, he said.

Yadav meanwhile took to X to say that it was the mark of a defeated person to talk, not about himself but about others. Starting from Friday, Adityanath is to address rallies in all nine constituencies in which bypolls will take place.