NEW DELHI, Feb 10: The Uttar Pradesh BJP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the Kerala CPM chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan joined issues on Thursday implying the quality of the state administrations as the BJP made a top-notch gain getting in its fold the professional wrestler “The Great Khali.”
Dalip Singh Rana, better known as The Great Khali, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star joined the BJP on Thursday. Khali reached the BJP headquarters in Delhi earlier in the day and was welcomed into the party fold. “With The Great Khali joining us, it will be a source of inspiration to youth as well as other people of the country,” said Union Minister and senior BJP leader Jitendra Singh.
The Great Khali, 49, is a former World Heavyweight Champion went on to be inducted into the prestigious WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2021 in the United States. Standing 7-foot-1 and tipping the scales at 347 pounds, Khali made his titanic presence felt from the moment he first entered the WWE Universe in 2006. Hailing from the small town of Dhiraina in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, Khali went toe-to-toe with some of the greatest wrestling stars, and won the World Heavyweight Championship in 2007.
Meanwhile, Vijayan was joined by the Opposition Leader V D Satheesan in hitting back at Yogi Adityanath who while requesting the voters in western Uttar Pradesh to ensure that UP did not turn into “Kashmir, Kerala and Bengal, if they make a mistake in voting.”
“That is what the people of UP would want,” Vijayan retorted. “If UP turns into Kerala as @myogiadityanath fears, it will enjoy the best education, health services, social welfare, living standards and have a harmonious society in which people won’t be murdered in the name of religion and caste. That is what people of UP would want,” Vijayan tweeted. The Opposition leader and senior Congress legislator V D Satheesan also took to Twitter to take on Adityanath. Satheesan tweeted, “dear UP, vote to be like Kerala. Choose plurality, harmony, inclusive development to medieval bigotry. Keralites, Bengalis and Kashmiris are also proud Indians.”
The tweets were in response to Yogi Adityanath’s video earlier in the day ahead of the first phase of the Assembly polls in UP in which he said, “I have to tell you something that is there in my heart. A lot of wonderful things have happened in these five years. Beware! If you miss, the labour of these five years will be spoiled. It would not take much time for Uttar Pradesh to become Kashmir, Kerala and Bengal,” the chief minister had warned.
(Manas Dasgupta)