Back RS Prasad for Ram Temple, Yogi tells Patna voters

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has urged people of the Bihar capital to vote for BJP candidate from Patna Sahib, Ravi Shankar Prasad, calling him the 'pairokar' (advocate) for Ram temple. His achievements as Union minister also included a clampdown on triple talaq and improved connectivity through Digital India, the BJP leader said at an election meeting in the city late on Wednesday night.

He is not only the pairokar of Ram temple but also the man responsible for ensuring justice to 'aadhi aabadi' (half the population a Hindi colloquial used to describe women by attacking the custom of triple talaq, the UP chief minister said evoking frenzied applause from the crowd.

"I am thankful that you waited till so late to hear me. It was important for me to come here since you are going to elect a person who is needed by millions of Ram Bhakts across the country", Adityanath said.

Prasad, who is pitted against sitting MP and Congress candidate Shatrughan Sinha, was the counsel for one of the petitioners in the Ayodhya title suit which was decided by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court in 2010, the appeal against which is pending before the Supreme Court.

As Law minister, he had played a crucial role in introducing the controversial ordinance making triple talaq punishable with imprisonment which was opposed by NDA partners like the JD(U) which was followed by a bill in Parliament, where it met with stiff resistance.

The UP chief minister, who heads the Gorakhnath Dham shrine of Gorakhpur, also praised Prasad who holds the IT and telecommunication portfolio before training his guns at Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"In Bihar, which is ruled by JD(U), BJP and LJP together, the environment is very good. But today I am coming from a state (West Bengal) where law and order has collapsed, chaos prevails and there is a dictatorship in the guise of democracy", Adityanath said on a day when the Election Commission (EC) cut short the campaign period in West Bengal in the wake of violence between BJP and TMC workers in Kolkata. The BJP leader claimed that he had three rallies scheduled in West Bengal earlier this week, permissions for which were denied.

I said permission had been withdrawn in an immoral way. I will come to Bengal and urge its people to dislodge from power a government which believes in such high- handedness. Finally, I got permission to hold rallies which, they ensured, reached me late so that it became difficult for me to visit the venues, he said.

The BJP leader added, "You all have seen how Amit Shah's roadshow was attacked. The Trinamool Congress, Lalu Prasad's RJD in Bihar these are all birds of a feather (ek hi thaili ke chatte batte). The entire country is reverberating with the cry 'Phir ek baar Modi Sarkaar'. And this is why all these opponents of the BJP are in a panic."

Patna Sahib goes to polls, along with seven other Lok Sabha seats of Bihar, in the final phase of general elections on Sunday.