Will contest UP assembly polls if party decides: Yogi

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said he will contest the forthcoming assembly polls if his party decides so.

Adityanath is currently a member of the UP Legislative Council.

Asked if he will contest the assembly polls early next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader told reporters in Gorakhpur, "I have always contested elections and I will contest from wherever the party will say."

"The party has a parliamentary board and it decides who will contest from where," he said in reply to another question.

Adityanath said the BJP government has done whatever the party promised in the run-up to the last assembly polls in 2017.

On the law and order situation, he said, the state has set an example and during the past over four years there was no riot and all festivals, including Diwali, were celebrated peacefully.

"Diwali used to be celebrated earlier too and Kumbh Mela was not organised for the first time in the state. But Uttar Pradesh was struggling with an image crisis and after 2017, the state got over the image crisis. The benefits of different schemes have reached the last man in society," he said.

The chief minister said the state has now become the best destination in the country for investment from abroad due to good road connectivity and guarantee of security.

"Earlier investments went out, but now investment is coming to the country from outside. Earlier people used to say that UP starts with potholes and ditches and now it is known for expressways and a network of four-lane roads," he said.

He said the Purvanchal Expressway will be inaugurated this month.

"About 4.5 lakh people got jobs in a transparent manner during this period and no one could raise a finger on the recruitment process," he added, listing his government's various achievements.