Lucknow:

Reacting to the row over using ‘nameplates’ on food shops on the Kanwar route in UP and Uttarakhand, UP Congress state president Ajay Rai said that if Chirag Paswan and Jayant Chaudhary are against this decision, then they should withdraw their support from the government.

Ajay Rai said, “If Chirag Paswan and Jayant Chaudhary are really against this decision, then they should withdraw their support from the government. This decision is definitely wrong. This is to create a division in society. Generally, the poor and downtrodden are involved in such activities. The government is unable to control inflation, unemployment, and paper leaks. They will badly face defeat in 2027.”

He further asked that the same Ganga River water is used to anoint Lord Vishwanath and is also used by Muslims for ‘Wuzu’, will a nameplate be used in such a situation?

Earlier, opposing Uttar Pradesh’s government’s directive for food shops to display their owners’ names along the Kanwar Yatra route, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) and Rashtriya Lok Dal Chief Jayant Chaudhary said on Sunday that it doesn’t appear to be a well-thought-out and well-reasoned decision.

Echoing similar views as Janata Dal (United), the RLD chief is also averse to the decision of identifying people and pointing them.

Notably, Jayant Chaudhary is a part of the Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre and his party, RLD, holds important significance in western Uttar Pradesh.

Jayant told news agency ANI, “It doesn’t appear to be well thought out and well-reasoned decision. Any decision shouldn’t cause harm to the sense of well-being of the community and harmony in the community. All those who go on Kanwar yatra and people who serve them, all are same. This tradition has been there from starting and no one saw who was serving them. This thing of identifying people and pointing out them, I couldn’t get that.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)