As the opposition parties accused the Yogi Adityanath regime of being ''anti-Brahmin', a four-time muscleman Uttar Pradesh lawmaker on Thursday apprehended that he could be ''killed in police encounter'' as he was a 'brahmin'.
In a video, which went viral on the social media, Vijay Mishra, the Nishad Party MLA from Gyanpur assembly seat in Bhadohi district in the state, said that the present regime wanted to 'eliminate' him so that some ruling party supported mafia from the neighbouring Varanasi or Chandauli districts could win the seat.
''My only fault is that I am a brahmin...I am a four-time MLA...the police have been harassing me and my family members...they are being implicated in false cases,'' Mishra said.
Mishra, who faced over 60 cases, including those of murder, kidnapping, extortion and others, alleged that the police were planning to 'arrest' him and then 'kill' him in a fake encounter.
The lawmaker's allegations came amid the opposition leaders' charge that the BJP government was 'persecuting' the 'brahmin' community.
Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh even termed the Special Task Force (STF) as 'Special Thakur Force' accusing the state government of being 'pro-Thakur'.
Earlier also Congress and BSP had levelled the same charge, when gangster Vikas Dubey, who, with the help of his goons, had gunned down eight cops, was killed in a controversial encounter with the police last month. Dubey hailed from the 'Brahmin' community.
Congress' 'brahmin' leader Jitin Prasada had then sought to link the 'encounter' of Vikas Dubey with the killings of the members of the community since the formation of the BJP government in the state in March 2017.
BSP supremo Mayawati also saw a connection between the killing of Vikas Dubey and the overall attitude of the state government toward the community. ''The Brahmin community is scared and is feeling unsafe after Vikas Dubey's encounter,'' Mayawati had said.
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