'Half a dozen of opposition parties will perish after June 4'

'The opposition wants the country to run on the basis of Shariat but this cannot happen'

Actor-politician and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Gorakhpur constituency Ravi Kishan has claimed that half a dozen opposition parties will cease to exist and their candidate lose their deposits after the results of the Lok Sabha elections are declared.

In an interview with PTI, Bhojpuri superstar Ravindra Shukla, better known as Ravi Kishan, claimed that if the opposition INDIA bloc comes to power, it would run the country based on Shariat.

"You will see on June 4 that these 26 parties are going to face defeat. More than half a dozen of them will cease to exist and the deposits of their candidates forfeited," Kishan, who is the current MP from Gorakhpur, said as he thumped the table to emphasise his point.

"The opposition wants the country to run on the basis of Shariat but this cannot happen. The country will be run according to Baba Saheb Ambedkar's Constitution.

"I promise that the Constitution will not be tampered with (if the BJP wins)... The Congress definitely wants to tamper with the Constitution," said Kishan, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Jaunpur seat on a Congress ticket. He then joined the BJP and won in 2019.

The BJP MP rebuked the opposition's allegation that he is an outsider.

"I have lived here for five years... I have left the royal life of Mumbai and I am serving the people here," he said.

INDIA bloc candidate from Gorakhpur Kajal Nishad, who too is an actor-politician, has accused Kishan of being an outsider. Nishad is a leader of the Samajwadi Party, and the BSP has fielded Javed Simnani from the seat.

Nishad, while addressing a poll meeting in Gorakhpur recently in the presence of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, said, "Your MP is an outsider, he does not live here whereas I have been serving you for 14 years. I am the daughter-in-law of Bhauwapar (a village in Gorakhpur)".

In his response, 55-year-old Kishan, a native of Jaunpur district, said, "I am from Mamkhor (a village in Gorakhpur) and this is my soil and my roots are here."

Without taking Nishad's name, the BJP leader alleged, "These people come here during elections, lose and go away. They loot the innocent Nishad people by taking their donations."

With more than four lakh Nishad voters, opposition parties have often fielded candidates from the community against the BJP in the Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency.

In the 2012 assembly elections, Nishad was the Congress candidate from the Gorakhpur rural seat. She lost the election and joined the SP.

In 2022, the SP gave Nishad a ticket from the Campierganj Assembly seat in Gorakhpur and in 2023, she was named the candidate for the mayoral polls in the Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation. She lost on both occasions.

"These people were never seen during the Covid pandemic while we helped people in every village," Kishan said, adding that the people of Gorakhpur have appreciated him for always being available for them.

"Their (Kajal Nishad) leader Akhilesh Yadav is a prince... He does politics of appeasement and caste. But we have hardworking people like Modi ji and Yogi ji who serve the public," he said.

He said the welfare schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have empowered the country's people.

"The poor got relief from Modi-Yogi's welfare policies and they are ready to repay this debt by voting (for BJP). I have felt this during the 500 small meetings that I've had with the people," he said.

"We get the blessings of the public by working hard... we do not get votes by dividing people based on their castes," he added.

He said the opposition leaders are seeking votes for their family members so that they can build palaces while the BJP is asking for votes for the country.

"They are collecting donations, then they will buy Fortuners and BMWs, diamond necklaces for their family and we are fighting to build the country," he said.

Kishan rivals have often accused him of using diversionary tactics and raising chants of 'Har Har Mahadev' whenever asked about the utilisation of his MPLADS funds.

"Our MP fund is visible in the smart classes for the poor, street lights, and security cameras. I did a film shoot for the first time in Gorakhpur in 2004 and gave employment to people... They (opposition) cannot give a job to a single person. There is no point in responding to these people's cheap talk," he said.

On the opposition parties claiming that the BJP-led NDA wants a 400-plus seat mandate so that they can change the Constitution, Kishan said, "I have not seen politics worse than this. They have stooped to this level because they can not defeat Modi ji. Our PM respects the Constitution and believes in it.

"If the Constitution had to be changed, it could have been done when Article 370 was abrogated," he said.

Article 370 of the Constitution, which bestowed a special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated on August 5, 2019.

Voting will be held in Gorakhpur in the seventh and last phase of the Lok Sabha elections on June 1.