Varanasi: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has rid the state of “mafia and machhar (mosquitoes)”, “gang wars and Japanese encephalitis”, Union minister Anurag Thakur, who is also the BJP’s co-incharge for the ongoing assembly elections, has said.
In an interview with ThePrint Friday, the minister said the party’s poll campaign has focused on development, as well as law and order.
“We have been working tirelessly for the issues that concern people. Not only have we provided clean governance, but at the same time, we have taken action against the mafia and goons too. We have delivered on all the fronts and people recognise that,” he said.
Campaigning for the last phase of the 2022 UP assembly elections will end Saturday, while voting will take place Monday. The results will be declared 10 March.
In the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP and its allies won 325 out of 403 seats in a sweeping victory, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) won 47, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 19, Congress 7, and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) one. The remaining were won by Independents.
Asked to comment on allegations that the BJP indulges in polarisation during elections and shifts focus away from issues like development and unemployment, Thakur said “safety and security of the country is important to us and nationalism is part of the BJP’s ideology”.
“Our entire campaign has been focused on good governance and development. These are the issues that we contest elections on and people know that,” he added.
He went on to say that the BJP’s main focus has been on “improving the law and order situation in the state, working for the welfare of the poor and improving the infrastructure of Uttar Pradesh”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stand for “clean” and development-oriented governance, and the people of Uttar Pradesh will once again reward them by ensuring a victory with 300+ seats, he said.
Responding to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claims that the BJP has lost the plot and is staring at defeat, Thakur said Mamata could not even win from Nandigram while the BJP improved its tally from three to over 70 in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections.
“Even in UP, the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) got 325 seats out of 400. This is no mean achievement and we will repeat our performance and get more than 300,” he added.
Mamata has campaigned in the UP elections to rally support for the SP-led alliance.
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‘Fight against goons will go on’
Expressing confidence in the BJP coming to power once again in the state, Thakur said the law and order situation has only become better under their government and the “fight against these goons and mafia will go on more strongly in next five years”.
He also took a dig at the SP chief, saying that, unlike Akhilesh Yadav, the prime minister did not feel the need to “change his seat”.
“Unlike Akhilesh and Swami Prasad Maurya, who have been changing their seats for fear of a loss, PM Modi has been coming to Varanasi since 2014, when he was elected from here,” he said.
“He has been coming regularly and has focused on the development of the city and state. Right from the development of Kashi, the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, PM Modi has worked tirelessly for the state. Naturally, he is loved by all and hence keeps coming back to the state and his constituency. That’s why Kashi’s janta (public) loves him,” he added.
Former CM Akhilesh is contesting his maiden assembly election from Karhal constituency — which falls in Mainpuri, the Lok Sabha constituency of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Maurya, a former state minister and prominent OBC face who jumped ship to the SP from the ruling BJP in January, is contesting from Kushinagar’s Fazilnagar seat, instead of Padrauna, which he has represented since 2008.
Saying that the PM is “loved by the people of Uttar Pradesh”, Thakur added: “Jo Kashi ko saware, Modi ji sabke pyaare. Jis neta ne itna kiya usko itna pyaar milega toh wo ayega hee (He who decks up Kashi, Modi ji is loved by all. A leader who did so much, if he receives so much love, he will obviously come).”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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