Over 800 mn get free ration in India while Pak fights hunger: CM Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath invoked Pakistan at a political rally on Friday and said while those in the neighbouring country are fighting hunger, "80 crore people in India are getting free ration".

Addressing a poll rally in Amroha in western Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader also said the "phir ek baar Modi sarkar" slogan of the saffron party is reverberating across the country.

Adityanath spoke before Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the rally that was organised in support of Kanwar Singh Tanwar, the BJP candidate from the Amroha constituency in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

"Pakistan, which has a population of hardly 23-24 crore, was formed after the partition in 1947 and is suffering from hunger today. This is also an example -- on one side, there is Pakistan, and on the other side, there is the promise of free ration to more than 80 crore people," the chief minister said.

The BJP, in its Lok Sabha poll manifesto, has promised to continue to provide free ration to more than 80 crore people in the country for the next five years.

Adityanath said "only one slogan is being heard from every direction -- phir ek baar Modi sarkar".

Welcoming Modi to Amroha, he hailed him for bringing transformative changes in the country.

Adityanath addressed the rally as polling was underway in eight western Uttar Pradesh constituencies in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls. Amroha will go to polls in the second phase on April 26.

Tanwar won the Amroha seat in 2014, but was defeated in 2019 by Danish Ali, who was with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) then. Ali is again in the fray from Amroha on a Congress ticket.