Yogi Adityanath rakes up Ayodhya firing to attack Dimple Yadav amid mangalsutra row

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday slammed Samajwadi Party leader and Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav amid the row over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'mangalsutra' remark.

Dimple Yadav had attacked the Prime Minister over his 'mangalsutra' jibe at the Congress and said the central government has not been able to find out the cause behind the 2019 Pulwama attack which left the widows of soldiers bereft of their mangalsutra.

Reacting to Dimple Yadav, Yogi Adityanath, while addressing a poll rally in Etawah, said, "A Samajwadi party leader has asked PM Modi, what about the 'Mangalsutra' of widows of the soldiers who lost their lives in Pulwama. I want to ask that leader of the Samajwadi party, what about the 'Mangalsutra' of the wives of the youths, of the Ram Bhakts whose blood was spilt by the Samajwadi Party in Ayodhya."

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister was referring to the events that unfolded in November 1990, when the then state Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder of the Samajwadi Party, ordered the police to shoot at Ram Janmabhoomi volunteers, killing several Kar Sevaks.

PM Modi had made the remark against Congress while criticising the party's manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections. Addressing a rally in Rajasthan, the Prime Minister said the Congress manifesto says the party will calculate the gold owned by mothers and sisters and distribute that wealth.

He said that the value of a mangalsutra is not limited to the price of gold but is connected to people's dreams. The Prime Minister accused the Congress of trying to take that value away. Congress has rubbished the Prime Minister's statement and denied that its manifesto made such promises.

On Wednesday, Samajwadi Party leader and the party's Lok Sabha candidate from UP's Mainpuri, Dimple Yadav, had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his 'mangalsutra' jibe at the Congress's poll manifesto.

"The widows of the soldiers killed in the Pulwama attack were bereft of their Mangalsutra. These people (Centre) could not make certain the cause behind it. The government has not been able to tell as to how it happened in the first place," Dimple said.

A total of 40 Indian Army soldiers were killed in the Pulwama Terror attack on February 14, 2019.