Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath launched a counter-attack on SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for questioning the former’s candidature from a “safe” seat, saying that the Gorakhpur constituency, which BJP has chosen for him to make his debut in the assembly polls, was not one which reflected the “dynastic and caste-based principles”. Akhilesh had wondered why Yogi had ‘returned’ to Gorakhpur, which he represented in the Lok Sabha for over two decades, when there was talk of him contesting from Ayodhya or Mathura.
In an interview to Times Now Navbharat, Yogi slammed Akhilesh for choosing for himself the Yadav-dominated Karhal constituency in Mainpuri, a bastion of the SP’s first family, saying: “Akhilesh has been the CM of the state. Of the 403 seats, why does he go to a constituency which is dominated by a particular caste?”
Without taking Akhilesh’s name, chief minister Yogi said such people aimed to come to power only to serve the interests of their dynasty.
“What do you expect from someone who wakes up on-ly at 12 noon and then takes two hours to get ready, and then it is time for such kids to go cycling. A state is not run like this. To run a state like UP, you require a strong commitment,” he said.
On the exit of the three OBC ministers in his government — Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan and Dharam Singh Saini — who have crossed over to the SP, Yogi said such people are “dissatisfied souls and they will go on wandering”. “They will be in Congress, in BJP, sometimes in SP and BSP. Their souls will never be satisfied,” he said.
The CM said BJP had neither weaned away any leader from the opposition parties nor had it stopped anyone from leaving the saffron ranks. On SP patriarch Mulayam Singh’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joining BJP, Yogi said she was not encouraged in her former party because she had a vision. “They were perturbed by her social activity, because she worked for the welfare of cows, the disabled.”