LUCKNOW: Asserting that the BJP was once again poised to form the government in UP by bagging more than 300 seats, Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday tore into the opposition accusing it of destroying the identity of UP over the years. Shah attributed the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath for bringing about the much needed change in perception about the state since 2017.
Flagging off BJP’s membership campaign, `Mera Parivar BJP Parivar’ from Lucknow, Shah lauded CM Yogi Adityanath of giving UP a distinct identity under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. “In a democracy, governments are not for any one family but for the poorest of the poor. But SP, BSP and Congress ruled either for themselves, or for their families or for a particular caste,” he said.
He also slammed the opposition for remaining confined to their homes for the past five years only to hit the streets ``wearing new clothes" to deceive people.
“UP mein Corona aaya…baadh aayi…aap kahan they, Iska hisaab de dijiye” he said. The home minister categorically unleashed a frontal attack on SP chief Akhilesh Yadav asking him to inform the people about his foreign visits in the last five years.
He said that while BJP functionaries worked round the clock, the opposition leaders acted as “chunavi mendhak” who used to come out whenever elections approached. Shah’s stinging diatribe at the opposition in general and Akhilesh in particular was seen as a strong pointer to BJP positioning itself against the SP leadership which has been flexing muscles to thwart the saffron party’s bid of returning to office in 2022. His remark also came amid Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi escalating party’s mass contact campaign --- on Friday she reached Lalitpur to meet the family of a family who allegedly committed suicide after facing shortage of fertilizer.
“For the past many years, the game of SP replacing BSP and vice-versa went on. It only ruined the state. The law and order crisis was at its peak. There was an exodus of people from districts like Kairana in west UP. But those in power did not wake up from their slumber,” the home minister charged. He said that those involved in forcing people to migrate “have themselves migrated” from UP under the present BJP dispensation in UP. “Every district had one or two `Bahubali’. All of them have now vanished,” Shah said, extolling the UP government for ensuring security of women and girls and cracking down on the mafia.
Shah said that it was because of the people support that the BJP government was able to ensure construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. He also flayed the SP government for ordering firing at “innocent karsewaks” in 1990. “This is the same state where idols of Ram Lalla will be established in a sky-touching temple,” he said. “Akhilesh Babu and company used to ask us as to when the temple would be constructed. PM Modi has already laid the foundation of the temple and Akhilesh could not donate even Rs 5000,” he taunted.
Accusing the opposition regime of ignoring UP’s identity as a land of Ram, Krishna and Baba Vishwanath, Shah said that it was only after BJP came to power in 2017 that the state realised its “real identity”. He categorically hailed the Yogi Adityanath government for turning UP into one of the most important states in the country. “It is for the first time that people have realised that a government is not for one family but for the welfare of the poor and downtrodden,” he said, while addressing an impressive gathering of party workers from the Awadh region.
