'Italian agents' facilitated religious conversions: Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday stoked a controversy by making a veiled attack against former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, saying "agents from Italy" facilitated religious conversions of local tribal people when the party was in power in the state.

Addressing a campaign rally here for the second phase of Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, Adityanath said, "Italy se ayatit saudagar" (agents imported from Italy) undertook "anti-national" activities like conversion of tribals in the state.

His "Italy se ayatit saudagar" remark was a veiled reference to Gandhi's origins.

Attacking the Congress over alleged minority appeasement, Adityanath said the "anti-national activity of religious conversion" reached its peak when the party ruled the state.

"Anti-national activities were at its peak. Dilip Singh Judeo (late BJP MP) took this menace head on and stopped Jashpur from becoming another Bastar," he said,