My government will work for all: Yogi Adityanath in LS

Two days after taking over as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday made an appearance in the Lok Sabha where he is still a member and vowed to work for development of all sections by creating a ‘new structure’ of progress.

Clad in his typical saffron robes, Adityanath was received warmly by the members who thumped the desks as he entered the House sometime after 4.30 pm when a debate was underway on the Finance Bill.

As he entered the House amid chants of ‘Jai Sri Ram’, there was a brief interruption in the speech by Telugu Desam Party member Rammohan Naidu, who stopped to extend greetings to the new UP chief minister.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan also extended her greetings as did a number of other members to the member from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

“You are welcome. You are the chief minister of UP and along with that you are a member of this House,” the speaker said while inviting Adityanath to speak.

The name of 44-year-old UP CM, who arrived in Delhi on Tuesday morning to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, was added to the list of speakers after he came to the House.

Adityanath, who spoke on the Bill after Naidu, laid thrust on allaying apprehensions over his taking over in UP.

“In Uttar Pradesh, the new model of development will be based on ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’,” emphasised Adityanath, who is known for his firebrand Hindutva image.

“My government will be for everyone, not specifically for any caste or community... We will work for development of all sections and castes and create a new structure of progress,” said the chief minister of the country’s largest state.

He said his government in the state will create a ‘new model’ of development under the guidance of Modi.

“UP will be the state which our honourable prime minister has dreamt of, a corruption-free state, a state free of anarchy. It would be an incident free-state,” Adityanath said.

“Uttar Pradesh would work to make the dream of prime minister a reality,” he said.

The state, he said, would be a model for development and the youth would not migrate.

He invited all the members of the House to visit Uttar Pradesh. “You are welcome to UP,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Adityanath met Modi and reportedly finalised allocation of portfolios among the state ministers during talks with BJP chief Amit Shah.

He also met top Union ministers, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The discussions between Adityanath and the party’s top brass came amid speculation that Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is also the state party chief and is its OBC face, is likely to be given a key profile.

He was also a contender for the chief minister’s post but missed out to the Gorakhpur MP.

Sources said the party will put the administrative experience of another Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who has worked as Lucknow mayor, to good use.

Adityanath, the head of Gorakhpur mutt who was a surprise pick for the post of UP chief minister, said that his government will try to create a situation where no riots will take place.

The five-time MP asserted this while citing the example of his constituency Gorakhpur.

"Of the 304 riots that took place in Uttar Pradesh, not a single riot took place in Gorakhpur," he said.

He expressed gratitude to the speaker, the PM and other party leaders for permitting him to speak on the Finance Bill.

"I am grateful to my party, our leader Prime Minister Modi, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar who gave me an opportunity to speak on this issue," he said.

Referring to the UP assembly polls in which his party got 312 seats in the 403-member House, the BJP leader said that the election results were a "slap on the face of those who did not perform".

In this context, he took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav whose coalition was trounched in the polls.

"I am younger by one year to Rahul and one year elder to Akhilesh. I came in between them," Adityanath said with a smile while addressing the opposition benches, particularly Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge.

Kharge then responded by saying, "You have become the CM. You should maintain the dignity of this post of CM."

The speaker then told Adityanath: "Kharge is elder to you. You should accept his blessings."

Targeting the previous government in UP, the chief minister said out of the 2.5 lakh crore allotted to the state in the last two-and-a-half years by the Centre, only Rs 78,000 crore were spent as the SP dispensation did not have any development model.

He said that when the BJP government under the leadership of Modi came to power at the Centre, the economic condition of the country was not good and the growth rate was continuously falling.

"But in the last three years, there is growth in the country. India has become a role model for development for other nations across the globe. The finance minister has very successfully led the economy of the country," he said.

Adityanath said that there are 25 crore Jhan Dhan accounts and people of different castes and religions have theirs accounts.

"There has been no discrimination," he underlined.

He appreciated the various schemes of the government including 'Start-Up India' and said "these schemes have proved to be very useful."

The prime minister, he said, had laid the foundation stone for a fertiliser plant in Gorakhpur which was closed for 26 years.

Work in the plant would be started, the CM said, adding production will also start in fertiliser plants in Sindri and Barauni.

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'Resolve differences to settle Ayodhya dispute'

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath welcomed the Supreme Court’s suggestion of an out-of-court settlement of the Ayodhya dispute and said aggrieved parties must sit together to resolve it.

Terming the Supreme Court’s observation as a solid one, Adityanath said ‘it is a welcome step’.

“We welcome this and both sides should sit to resolve the differences and find a way out. Whatever cooperation they required from the state government, we will do that,” the chief minister, a saint himself, told reporters outside the Parliament.

The construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya had also featured in the BJP’s manifesto for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

IMAGE: Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath meets BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/ PTI Photo