After UP, BJP sees in bulldozers a ticket to election victories

New Delhi: After gaining electoral success in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the BJP has started believing that the “bulldozers” will also ensure victory in more states in the coming polls. Several BJP-ruled states followed the successful ‘bulldozer’ style of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and tried to send a strong message on the issue […]

New Delhi: After gaining electoral success in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the BJP has started believing that the “bulldozers” will also ensure victory in more states in the coming polls.

Several BJP-ruled states followed the successful ‘bulldozer’ style of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and tried to send a strong message on the issue of law and order and his government’s tough stance against people involved in violence and heinous crime.

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The bulldozers, which initially started from Uttar Pradesh, are now rolled out in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi. BJP- ruled Karnataka is also mulling to roll out bulldozers to send a strong message about government’s stance on law and order situation.

A section in the party feels that the word ‘bulldozer’ is turning into a political synonym for ‘polarisation’ after Uttar Pradesh polls.

The chief ministers, who rolled out demolishing illegal construction and encroachments, are – ‘Bulldozer Baba’ (Yogi Adityanath), or ‘Bulldozer Mama’ (Shivraj Singh Chouhan).

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta, who instructed party ruled municipal corporations to roll out bulldozers to remove encroachment, is called ‘Bulldozer Bhaiya’.

A senior BJP functionary said that ‘Bulldozers’ are not demolishing properties of innocent people, but only of rioters and criminals or who have encroached the government’s land.

“Many in the BJP including me think that there is nothing wrong if any government decides to use bulldozers against properties of anti-social elements,” a BJP functionary said.

While the opposition parties alleged that the BJP targeted minorities only by demolishing their properties, the BJP accused the opponent of giving political colour to illegal construction and encroachment.

“Bulldozers are rolled out not against any community but against those involved in unlawful activities,” he said.

After the demolition drive in Shaheen Bagh in the national capital, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had said it has become a fashion to give a “communal colour” to illegal and unlawful acts and the “bulldozer was getting defamed” for action against encroachment.

“Bulldozer badnaam hua, encroachment tere liye,” Naqvi had said.

Amid allegation that the bulldozer only rolled out against the minority, Delhi BJP spokesperson Aditya Jha told IANS that it was a drive in the city against illegal encroachment and not individuals or community.

“It is an anti-encroachment drive and it will continue till people of Delhi get respite from encroachment,” Jha said.

The BJP also took a dig at the opposition, especially Congress, saying that in India, it was Indira Gandhi who first ordered the use of bulldozers on minorities at the Turkman Gate.

In-charge of BJP’s national information and technology department Amit Malviya had tweeted, “Does everyone in the Congress party, from Manish Tewari to Rahul Gandhi, suffer from amnesia or are they simply ill-informed about their own past? Forget the Nazis and Jews, in India it was Indira Gandhi who first ordered the use of bulldozers on minorities at the Turkman Gate.”