A poster of newly appointed BJP’s Uttar Pradesh chief, Keshav Prasad Maurya, likening him to Lord Krishna has caused huge controversy.
In the photo, Maurya is seen posing as Lord Krishna with sudarshan chakra with five opposition leaders being shown forcibly disrobing girl being portrayed as Uttar Pradesh.
The five leaders are former chief minister Mayawati, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi, the AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Samajwadi leader Azam Khan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP President Amit Shah too have their photos right on top of the poster.
Speaking to ANI, the BJP worker Rupesh Pandey, whose brainchild this poster was, said that there was nothing wrong in portraying Maurya as Lord Krishna as Keshav was one of the names of Krishna.
The BJP too has found nothing wrong even though it has clarified that the poster was not released officially by the saffron party.
The BJP and its supporters have taken serious objection to other leaders being portrayed as Hindu God or Goddesses.
The supporters of the Hindutva party had reacted with anger when the Congress President Sonia Gandhi was portrayed as Goddess Durga in the past.
Not so long ago, social media had erupted in anger against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal after he shared a cartoon where a man similar to the Hindu god Hanuman (on his flight back to Ram after setting Lanka on fire) is shown flying across to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and saying, “Done Sir. All attention is on JNU”, while Modi stands in front of a stage full of issues such as ‘Pathankot, Rohith, Make In India’.
Maurya, a controversial BJP leader, was recently appointed the new party chief in Uttar Pradesh.
Maurya is facing criminal charges in as many as 10 cases. According to The Hindu, he is the prime accused in a murder case, has also been booked for promoting enmity between groups, criminal intimidation, deliberate acts of hurting religious sentiment, criminal conspiracy and rioting.