Prominent Jat community leader and UP Sugarcane Development Minister Chaudhary Lakshmi Narayan has dismissed the member parties of opposition INDIA bloc as blown out transformers which cannot power even a light bulb, let alone run the country.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the other hand, is a powerhouse who spreads light everywhere. For example, there are 10 transformers of 250 units each, but they are ‘fused’ transformers, so they would not be able to light even a bulb. On the other hand, Modiji is such a transformer which spreads light everywhere. The opposition bloc will cease to exist after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,”' he said.
He also said the alliance had “scamsters” as its members, all of whom have a history of dissension.
Chaudhary, a five-time MLA from Chhata assembly constituency in Mathura, has in the past been a member of Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress. He later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and is currently an MLA from the same seat. Being a leader with considerable influence in western UP, Chaudhary asserted that the region, with Jats as the dominant caste, stands firmly with the BJP.
“The Jats are a nationalist community, and the Jats stay with the party which speaks about nationalism. Even during the Mughal era, Jats had fought for and defended Sanatan dharma and the country,” he said.
“If anyone has the highest contribution in defending and saving Indian culture, then it is the people who live in the 200-kilometre radius of Delhi. The voters of western UP are with the BJP,” he added.
Once a minister in the BSP government, Chaudhary dismissed his old party as inconsequential in view of the coming general election, saying its vote bank, which largely is made up of labourers, knows its interests lie with BJP.
He also explained the victory of the Samajwadi Party in the by-election to Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in November last year as a consequence of sympathy wave for departed SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, saying the seat was not “impregnable” for the BJP in future.
The minister also said the Yogi Adityanath government restarted several sugar mills shut down in the previous governments and opened many new ones in his tenure.
“During the BSP regime (2007 to 2012), 19 sugar mills were closed while in the SP rule (2012 to 2017), 11 sugar mills were shut down. After our government came, we revived the closed sugar mills and set up new mills,” he said.
He also said that till 2017, sugarcane was cultivated across 20 lakh hectares in the state and now its area had expanded to 29 lakh hectares.