'BJP never associated Ayodhya with votes': Uma Bharti says don't blame Modi, Yogi for poor show in UP

BJP leader and former Union Minister Uma Bharti on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should not be blamed for the party's poor performance in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections. She said the saffron party had fared badly in the state even after the Babri masjid demolition. 

The BJP suffered a massive setback in the crucial state, where its tally dropped by 29 seats. The party could win just 33 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

The former Union Minister said it was wrong to blame Modi and Yogi for the Lok Sabha election results in Uttar Pradesh. "BJP had lost even after the demolition of the Babri structure on December 6, 1992. Despite this, we did not drop the Ram temple in Ayodhya from our agenda," Bharti said replying to a reporter's question in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri. 

The BJP's firebrand leader said the party never associated Ayodhya with votes. "Similarly, now we are not associating (disputes regarding religious places at) Mathura-Kashi with votes."

To another question, she said one needs to understand the nature of the Hindu community which does not conflate the social system with religion. "It is the Islamic society which works by uniting the social and religious systems. That is why they vote according to the social system," the BJP leader claimed. 

Bharti said the results in Uttar Pradesh did not mean people's devotion to Lord Ram had dwindled. "We should not have this arrogance that every Ram devotee will vote for the BJP. We should not think that the one who does not vote for us is not a Ram devotee. This (poll result) is the outcome of some negligence and nothing else," she said. 

The BJP leader also expressed confidence that PM Modi would successfully run the coalition government at the Centre with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu. She said in the past the BJP ran governments successfully with them as allies.

(With inputs from PTI)