The BJP legislature party in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday completed the formality of electing Yogi Adityanath as its leader, paving the way for his return as the Chief Minister. Yogi will take oath on Friday in a gala function.
The meeting was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah as observer. Senior BJP leader and nine-time MLA Suresh Khanna proposed the name of Yogi as the leader while Surya Pratap Shahi, Baby Rani Maurya, Ram Naresh Agnohori, Sushil Shakyam, and Nand Gopal Nandi seconded his name.
Yogi then called on the Governor Anandiben Patel and staked claim to form the next Government. He will be sworn in as the CM on Friday in a function at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium.
“Today I have been elected as the leader of the legislature party. This is a matter of pride for us. But this also means we have to work with more vigour to ensure that benefits of the Government schemes should reach the targeted audience,” Yogi said while addressing the legislators after being elected as leader.
Stressing on the importance of the BJP’s victory in 2022 elections, Amit Shah said that this win has written a new chapter in UP’s history. In the last 35 years never a party has been re-elected after completing a tenure of five years. In both the times the BJP got two-thirds votes and this was possible because of Yogi, he added.
Yogi said when he was elected leader of the legislature party for the first time in 2017 he did not have administrative experience. “I was just a Member of Parliament and had earlier never been a Minister even. I worked under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Shah. They taught me the nuances of administration. It was their guidance under which I was able to pull the State out of morose of misrule and transformed it to a performing State in just five years,” Yogi said.
In his around 20-minute speech Yogi elaborated on the achievements of the Government which ranged from free distribution of ration to effective control of pandemic, from improving law and order situation to inviting investments in the State.
“In 2017 I learnt the difference between MP and Chief Minister. As a Member of Parliament I was responsible for the development of a constituency while as a CM I am answerable to each and every person of the State. People’s welfare is my responsibility, and this lesson I learnt from Modi ji and Amit Shah ji,” the Chief Minister-designate said.
He even recounted how Shah had asked him to increase the State’s budget size if our Government wanted to meet the aspirations of the people. “Under his (Shah’s) guidance the budget size was increased from Rs 2 lakh corer to Rs 6 lakh crore in just five years. The per capita income has been doubled while there is a sharp increase in the SGDP too,” he said.
He said every word written in the election manifesto needed to be implemented. “We will fulfill all the promises we have made during election campaign,” he said.
Setting a clear agenda for the Yogi 2.0 Government, Shah asked the leaders to strengthen the base of good-governance built during the last tenure of Yogi so that Uttar Pradesh could become Number 1 State of India.
“Uttar Pradesh has seen transformation in the last five years. The work done by Yogi as Chief Minister has infused a new hope among people that transformation can be brought about in UP through su-raj (good governance). In the next five years we need to strengthen the base of this good governance so that UP can become the best governed state of the country,” Shah told legislators during the meeting..
“Good investment will bring more revenue which in turn will help in implementation of the welfare schemes for the poor and downtrodden. More we work for the poor, the more we will be acclaimed,” said the union minister.
He said that UP had been the centre of political instability since its inception. After independence political values declined with the result the parties that bred on caste-based and dynastic politics flourished. “This led to political instability. In the 2014 general elections when Modi, who was then Chief Minister of Gujarat, was projected as the PM candidate there was jubilation among masses. That time we won 73 out of 80 seats in UP. This result gave us a belief that if the BJP can win 73 seats in 2014, we can win over 300 seats in the Assembly election. And this proved correct in 2017,” Shah said.