Farmers Movement Archive

Yogi Adityanath cites 2014, ’17 & ’19 polls, writes off SP alliance efforts

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath on Thursday dismissed as ‘inconsequential’ the alliance of smaller parties being cobbled up by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for the 2022 assembly elections. Speaking to Times Now Navbharat, the CM said UP had rejected all kinds of alliances by the opposition in the past three elections and there was no reason to believe that another one would do well. “In 2017, two boys came together and were rejected. In 2014, the brother and sister were rejected, in 2019 the mahagathbandhan was rejected. Now, there is no alliance in UP.” Yogi was referring to the UP campaign by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the alliance between Akhilesh and Rahul in the 2017 assembly polls and the SP-BSP pact in the 2019 LS polls. The CM said BJP will perform extremely well in the 2022 polls even in places like west UP, which were being considered by some as a weak spot for the party. “Before 2017, west UP was facing a major security issue. More than 300 riots took place in UP between 2012 and 2017, most of which were in west UP. We have ensured good law and order. There have been no riots and all festivals have been celebrated peacefully. With SP in power, there were riots in Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Kosi Kalan, Saharanpur and Bijnor,” he said, adding that nobody could forget what led to the Muzaffarnagar riots and the then government’s role. When asked to comment on the controversy over the tweet by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya that preparations were on for construction of the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura, Yogi said that he had not had the chance to speak to the former. At the same time, he said: “If anyone is asked, they would say that Lord Krishna is worshipped in Mathura. Ram is worshipped in Ayodhya, Radha Rani in Barsana and Krishna in Mathura. I think this is above political agenda. Our priority is to respect faith. Puja is a question of faith and there is no question of creating or destroying anything.” Defending Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to repeal the farm laws, the CM said that farmers actually got relief only after Modi came to power and a new procurement policy was brought in 2017. He said after the farm laws were passed, BKU leaders had met him to thank BJP. However, later BKU leader Rakesh Tikait got together with farm leaders of Haryana and Punjab and started the protest.

The Times of India

2021-12-03

India