At BJP virtual rally, PM Modi says UP wants Adityanath back as CM

Modi claimed that the law-and-order situation, especially women’s security, had improved during the rule of the BJP, and that was why women had pledged to bring back Adityanath as the chief minister. Highlighting the welfare and development schemes that the state government implemented during its tenure, the prime minister said at a virtual rally, “UP chaahe asardaar sarkar, fir ek baar Yogi sarkar [UP wants an effective government, Yogi Adityanath government once again].”

The prime minister addressed voters of 21 Assembly seats in the districts of Mathura, Agra and Bulandshar at a virtual Jan Chaupal (public meeting). These seats go to the polls in the first phase on February 10.

Hitting out at the Samajwadi Party (SP) and its alliance partners, the prime minister alleged these parties had made false promises to farmers and misled sugarcane growers. While the Adityanath government paid Rs 1.5 lakh crore to farmers during its tenure, these Opposition parties had made farmers cry by not paying their dues, Modi claimed. The amount paid by the BJP government was more than the payments the previous SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-led governments had made, Modi claimed.

The prime minister alleged that the SP-led government that preceded the BJP administration caused terror among the people while the Adityanath government was building people’s future. The UP had made it clear that certain people would not receive their support because their politics depends on money and muscle power, casteism, communalism, and nepotism, Modi added.

“Therefore, UP has decided that the biggest issue in the current elections is the state’s development and that too at a rapid speed,” Modi told the audience, adding that Adityanath had proven in the past five years that only the BJP and a “double-engine government” could develop UP. The BJP refers to its governments at the Centre and in a state as a “double-engine government”.

Taking a dig at SP president Akhilesh Yadav, Modi said, “Those showing devotion for Lord Krishna ahead of elections, they had forgotten the areas such as Vrindavan, Barsana, Goverdhan, Baldev and Nandgaon when they were in the power…After seeing the public support for the BJP, they have started dreaming of Lord Krishna. I had said earlier too that those who keep sleeping dream. But who stay awake, they take the pledge [to work for people’s welfare].”

Last month, Akhilesh had said in a lighter vein that he dreams of Hindu deity Krishna every night, and the deity tells him that he will form the state government and establish “Ram Rajya” in Uttar Pradesh after the elections.

Keeping up his attack on the Opposition, Modi said, those ruled in the state earlier had no concern for people’s faith and necessities and the development of UP. “They had a single agenda — UP ko looto [loot the state]. That is why they are cursing Yogi and the BJP government nowadays.”

He added, “What happened with women and daughters on highways? Bulandshahr people know it very well. Illegal grabbing on shops and houses was very common at the time. People were helpless and had to migrate.”

The prime minister claimed that during the BJP’s rule a record number of highways were built and people now travel fearlessly. “This is why girls in UP say that they were scared to go out earlier. During the rule of the BJP government, criminals are shivering in terror.”