‘Will put all TMC Romeos behind bars’: Yogi Adityanath promises UP-like anti-Romeo squads in West Bengal

West Bengal Election, Yogi Adityanath in Hooghly: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday promised to bring UP-like ‘anti-Romeo’ squads in West Bengal to protect the interests of daughters and sisters of the state. Adityanath is one of the star campaigners of the saffron party and has been extensively campaigning in the eastern state.

Addressing a rally at Krishnarampur in Hooghly, the chief minister said that his party, if elected, will introduce “UP-like anti-Romeo squads in Bengal and put all the ruling party romeos behind bars. “To safeguard the interests of sisters and daughters, the BJP will create Uttar Pradesh-like anti-Romeo squads in Bengal and put all TMC Romeos behind bars,” he said,

The BJP’s firebrand chief minister also said that his counterpart Mamata Banerjee will start saying ‘Jai Shree Ram’ after May 2, the day results will be declared in West Bengal. “After 2 May, Didi will start saying ‘Jai Shree Ram’,” Adityanath said in Hooghly. The top BJP leaders say that Jai Shri Ram is not a religious slogan but a way of expressing anger against Mamata’s politics of appeasement in Bengal.

Yogi also brought up the anti-CAA protest in Bengal. He said during CAA protests, the TMC people were supporting those who were instigating violence. “In UP, we put up hoardings of rioters and confiscated their properties. Mamata Didi can’t do this as she sees them as a TMC vote bank,” the UP chief minister said.

With-in days of taking over as chief minister, Yogi Aditynath had announced that he would form ‘Anti-Romeo Squd’ to stop eve-teasing and harassment of girls. His government later set up the squads, which was one of the promises in the manifesto. Then Lucknow Zone IG A Satish Ganesh had said that squads were set up to check eve-teasing and passing of lewd comments against women and girls…”and action will be taken under the Goonda Act against the wrongdoers”.

The anti-romeo squad had the backing of then BJP chief Amit Shah. In the run up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2017, then BJP President Amit Shah had said that if elected his government would set up anti-Romeo squads in UP. “In UP, people have stopped sending their daughters to colleges because the girls get harassed. We have promised that BJP will form an anti-Romeo Squad to save these girls. This is not communal,” Amit Shah had told News 18.