Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday criticised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath for calling Hindu god Hanuman a Dalit, the Hindustan Times reported.

“Hanuman was a forest dweller, deprived and a Dalit,” Adityanath had said at an election campaign rally in Rajasthan’s Alwar district on November 27. “Bajrang Bali [Hanuman] worked to connect all Indian communities together, from north to south and east to west.”

In response, Yadav on Wednesday said castes of only a few gods have been revealed. “It will be good if he [Adityanath] tells caste of all of them,” he added. “I will also pray to the God of my caste.”

The Samajwadi Party leader on Wednesday announced his party’s support for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh after the Rahul Gandhi-led party fell two seats short of a majority. The Congress emerged as the single-largest party with 114 seats, while the BJP got 109 seats – both parties were short of the majority mark of 116. The support from the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party will help it cross the half-way mark.

Yadav also urged the government to go back to the ballot paper system for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “We want that the ballot paper system should be used in the Lok Sabha elections 2019,” he said, claiming that electronic voting machines were prone to manipulation.

He accused the BJP of spreading hatred and deceiving the public and said people will give the saffron party a befitting reply in 2019.