Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday came down heavily on his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath, calling him a “coward” for not letting Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visit Lakhimpur Kheri following the violence that ensued last Sunday and keeping her in the custody, reported news agency PTI. Priyanka Gandhi was detained in Sitapur on Monday following her attempt to visit the violence-hit district in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

Bhagel made the remarks while addressing the party’s “Kisan Nyay Rally” in Varanasi. During his address, he also slammed the BJP, claiming that the party divides people in the name of religion, which they “learnt from the British”.

Training guns at Adityanath, the Chhattisgarh chief minister said he had never known seers to fear anyone but CM Yogi proved to be an exception who, he said, was a “big coward”.

“He is such a coward that he got afraid of a woman, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, that he did not allow her to go to Lakhimpur Kheri and kept her in jail for four days. The UP chief minister will be such a big coward, I never knew this,” PTI quoted Baghel as saying.

“When I reached Lucknow from Raipur, I was not allowed to move out of the airport. When I said that I want to go to the UP Congress office and that I want to meet Priyanka Gandhi, I was told that I cannot go out of the airport. Such a coward and frightened person, I have not seen,” Baghel added.

Stating that Congress has always fought for the farmers, Baghel urged people to vote for the party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. He also mentioned that unlike CM Yogi who never stayed true to his word of doubling the farmers’ income, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi gave farmers in Chhattisgarh ₹2,500 per quintal for paddy, the only state to do so.

“The RSS and Savarkar used to act as informers of the British while on the other hand, it was Mahatma Gandhiji, who fought for the farmers. (Jawaharlal) Nehruji and Sardar Patelji also fought for the farmers,” he said.

“They (BJP) know how to make people fight in the name of religion and this quality of divide and rule they have learnt from the British. This has been going on since the freedom struggle,” he alleged.