Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has sparked a controversy with his latest remark. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  Saffron follower has said that the festival of Holi has to be respected by each and everyone as it falls once in a year while Namaz is offered several times.

Referring to the shifting of Namaz timing on the occasion of Holi, the UP Chief Minister said that he truly respected that the timings were changed. Adityanath made the remark while addressing a public rally ahead of Phulpur Assembly bypolls, slated on March 11.

Ahead of Holi, Imam-e-Eidgah Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahli, who is also executive committee member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), had requested to the imams of different mosques, especially those in susceptible areas, to shift the timing of the Friday prayers by 30 minutes to an hour and, in the process, send a good message of communal harmony.

"In the past, there have been incidents of riots breaking out with the Holi revellers throwing colour on those going to offer namaz...We have taken this step especially keeping in mind the sensitivity in the mixed population areas," he had said.

The cleric  had said that Shia scholar Maulana Kalbe Jawwad also made the mind to shift the prayer timings at the Asifi mosque.