Journalist cum YouTuber Ajit Anjum, infamous for his ‘neutral’ and ‘objective’ style of reporting has been on a perpetual prowl throughout the election season in Uttar Pradesh. He tours the state, its villages, and towns, all in his dishevelled state and tries to find that one exception to make his case stronger for an imaginary anti-Yogi wave.
However, most of the time, this cold approaching backfires for Anjum as he either ends up being schooled or red-faced for his partisan questions. While it’s his day job to find anti-BJP voices, it appears that Ajit is now trying to influence voters and their psyche by conducting last-minute campaigning for his political masters.
When you feel dejected in life. You reckon there’s nothing left in it. That you’ve reached the end of the road. Look at @ajitanjum’s interviews. The man never loses hope. He wakes up everyday and sets off to find 1 person who loathes Yogi. An endless cycle. An upbeat man. Salute. pic.twitter.com/Tk6czujsQ4
— Atul Kumar Mishra (@TheAtulMishra) February 28, 2022
The content creator stood outside the polling centres during the fifth-phase polling and harassed the voters, going in as well as coming out after casting their votes to give their assessment. Questions like, “Who did you vote for”, “Who will bring (Vikas) development?” “Yogi Ji, Akhilesh Ji, Behenji, who are you voting for?” He seemed to influence the voters who had yet not cast their votes.
Ajit Anjum standing outside polling booth and seems to harass voters
Not just voters coming out, but even voters going in
Many voters don't want to talk, but he is pressing them
His "questions" seem very close to actual campaigning, which is banned
EC should look into this.
— Abhishek (@AbhishBanerj) February 27, 2022
However, contrary to Ajit’s agenda, most of the voters claimed that they were voting for BJP, Yogi, Modi and the development work carried out by them. One of the voters said, “BJP is right in front of us. It isn’t hidden from anyone that BJP is the party for development.”
Moreover, after running into countless BJP voters, Ajit tried to turn the questions by asking the caste of women voters. After the woman replied that she was from a caste that made tokri’s (basket), Ajit asked whether they were Dalit or not. However, the woman voter did not know what Dalit meant, and thus Ajit’s attempt to stoke controversy once again died a swift death.
I liked that lady in Bike from Yadav community who looks like will vote for Yogi.
— only_with_truth (मोदी का परिवार ) (@onlywithtruth1) February 27, 2022
A proud Hindu woman shut Ajit Anjum
This is not the first time that Ajit has had to curb his enthusiasm and tone down the agenda. During one of the earlier phases of the election, Ajit approached a woman, channelling his inner Ravish Kumar, and asked what was her Jaati? (caste). However, the said woman, aware of Ajit’s twisted agenda replied with a straight face, “I am Hindu”.
Ajit stood frozen and could not muster a response. He stood still, for what seemed like an eternity before walking away meekly, trying to change the topic.
Fantastic moment when Ajit Anjum asks a voter what is her caste.
The woman replies softly : I am a Hindu
India has changed a lot.
Get used to it, liberals.
— Abhishek (@AbhishBanerj) February 25, 2022
Ajit was accused of hurling casteist slurs
Another round of embarrassment came Ajit’s way when he showed his proper casteist tendencies. In one of the videos that went viral on the realms of social media platforms, Anjum uttered some casteist slurs while conversing with locals in Sivalkhas, Meerut.
Ajit’s statements did not sit well with self-described Ambedkarite Suraj Bauddh, who objected to Anjum’s casteist slurs and asked him to not use them under the pretext of proverbs. Facing flak from all directions, Ajit took to Twitter to offer an apology and played the same card that racists use when called for abusing blacks — “I have black friends, I cannot be racist”
Anjum tweeted, “I’m sorry @SurajKrBauddh, I wanted to speak “chori-chakari” but I do not know how it was said. I sincerely apologize. I hope you all will forgive me. I am neither like this nor think so I am also among the few journalists who may have gone among Dalits many times in the last 6 months,”
Ajit yet to salute CM Yogi Adityanath
Earlier in September 2021, during the COVID times, he had challenged UP CM Yogi Adityanath that he would salute him ten times if Uttar Pradesh manages to administer 9 crore doses in three months from July 1.
He had said, “Under that mega vaccination drive, ten lakh people will get vaccinated every day. According to that, there is a plan to vaccinate 10 lakh people, i.e. three crore in a month and nine crore people in 3 months. If the state achieves the target, I will salute CM 10 times.”
However, the UP government under Yogi Adityanath completed the target of vaccinating 10 crores with 5 days to spare. The netizens had then trolled him demanding to keep his promise of ’10 salamis ‘to the CM. Conveniently, Ajit never addressed the achievement.
Read more: Lutyen’s media is ensuring that Congress gets routed in UP elections and dies before 2024
Recently a post went viral in Ajit’s name that said that he will start selling Pakodas if CM yogi came to power once again. However, still nursing the wounds of the ‘Salaami’ fiasco, Ajit cleared the air and remarked that the post was photoshopped.
He tweeted, “The new Photoshop of propaganda about me. Anything written in my name is going viral. This shows how furious the community of bhakts is on me. My twitter handle is not verified but the game is on by photoshopping the blue tick. These are fake people”
मेरे बारे में दुष्प्रचार का नया फोटोशॉप .
मेरे नाम से कुछ भी लिखकर वायरल किया जा रहा है .
इसी से पता चलता है कि भक्तों की जमात मुझ पर कितनी बौखलाई हुई है .
मेरा ट्वीटर हैंडल वेरिफाइड नहीं है लेकिन ब्लू टिक वाला फोटोशॉप करके खेल चालू है .
ये फर्जी लोग हैं . pic.twitter.com/jolZFCznCD— Ajit Anjum (@ajitanjum) February 5, 2022
The election to the 403-seat state assembly is approaching the penultimate stage. The results will be announced on March 10. However, after spending months in Yogi’s state, Mr Ajit Anjum will already be knowing the result, given he can count the number of anti-BJP voices he met, on his fingers.
