In a jibe at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for calling Hindu god Hanuman a Dalit, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday asked him to reveal the caste of other deities also.

Adityanath had during a poll rally in Rajasthan’s Alwar district said that Hanuman was a forest dweller, deprived and a Dalit.

“Bajrang Bali worked to connect all Indian communities together, from north to south and east to west,” he had said.

In his retort, Akhilesh said, “Castes of only some gods have been revealed. It will be good if he (Adityanath) tells caste of all of them. I will also pray to the God of my caste.”

The SP leader, who has announced his party’s support to the Congress for the formation of the government in Madhya Pradesh, also demanded going back to the ballot paper system for the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

“...we want that the ballot paper system should be used in the LS elections 2019,” he said, adding that the electronic voting machines were prone to manipulation and not a very transparent form of voting.

He said the BJP had spread hatred and deceived the public and the voters would give it a befitting answer in the 2019 polls.

“We could have contested more seats but we did not want to queer the pitch for other political parties fighting the BJP,” he said.

Yadav said his focus was on strengthening the party cadre at the booth level.

The SP chief also asked Congress to fulfil all the promises made to the people of Madhya Pradesh, including loan waiver of farmers, without delay.

The Congress, which was neck-and-neck with the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, emerged as the single largest party, bagging 114 seats, but fell short of the majority mark of 116 in the 230-member assembly. The BJP was close behind with 109 seats.

First Published: Dec 12, 2018 23:08 IST