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‘BJP will win 75 plus seats in LS polls in UP, including Amethi, Azamgarh,’ says Adityanath
The BJP is targeting Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s Amethi seat and Azamgarh from where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Singh Yadav is expected to contest.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that the BJP would win more than 75 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, including Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s Amethi seat and Azamgarh from where Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav won in 2014.
“We will not win 73 seats, we will win more than 75 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. It also includes the seats of Amethi and Azamgarh. I am making this claim in the name of development and good governance.,” Adityanath said in a live chat with Hindustan in Lucknow.
While Mulayam Singh will contest from Mainpuri this time, there is speculation that his son and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Singh Yadav will fight from Azamgarh to claim Mulayam’s legacy.
Adityanath who spoke on a range of issues reiterated that a Ram temple in Ayodhya is a matter of faith.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered mediation in the Ayodhya title suit. Mediation will start within a week at Faizabad and state of UP has to make arrangements, the Supreme Court ruled. The mediation panel has to give its report within four weeks.
“Everyone has said that the temple should be built on the same spot where Lord Ram was born. The Supreme Court has constituted a three-member mediation team. If the Supreme Court thinks that the solution will come out then it is a good thing. But the world knows that it is a question of faith,” he said.
“The picture on the issue of Ayodhya is clear. The ASI itself has certified itself that it is the birthplace of Lord Ram.”
He hailed the Centre’s response to the Pulwama terror attack saying, “The manner in which the government responded to the Pulwama attack is a sign of new India.”
Asked how the state government conducted the Kumbh Mela despite a terror threat which was heightened after the Pulwama attack, Adityanath said that the administration had made elaborate arrangements to ensure that the pilgrimage went off smoothly.
“We used artificial intelligence and a central command centre to track the situation in Prayagraj in real time... And I want to assure everyone that Uttar Pradesh is a safe place for everyone and it is our responsibility to provide safety. Anyone who thinks that he can hoodwink security knows where he will go.”
He lashed out at the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party accusing them of looting the state and said their places are in a museum.
“There was no policy of purchase in UP. We made sugarcane payment of Rs 56,000 crore. At the same time, we have given jobs to over 9 lakh youths.”
He claimed more than 12 lakh houses were constructed in the villages of the state under the Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme.
“More than 10 million toilets have made life easier for millions of households. More than 400 drinking water projects have been completed in the rural drinking water scheme. The best roads were built, the work of Purvanchal Expressway has started and so has the work for the prosperity of the farmers. The list will be even longer, when we prepare the accounts of the last two and a half years of the Uttar Pradesh government,” Adityanath said.
