Ghaziabad: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday lashed out at Congress and Samajwadi Party over their attacks on BJP over embezzlement of Ram Temple donations while also quoting former PM Rajiv Gandhi to accuse the opposition parties of decades of corruption.The CM’s remarks came at an event in Muradnagar, one of four gatherings he addressed in politically crucial western UP the same day. The state goes to assembly elections in the first half of 2027. The CM also visited Shamli and Bijnor on Friday. He will visit Amroha, Bulandshahr and Sambhal on Saturday. Western UP has 136 seats, of which BJP and its allies won 93 in 2022.Yogi began his 28-minute Muradnagar speech with “Siya Ram Chandra ki jai.” “Samajwadi Party and Congress are now talking about aastha (faith), which is laughable. Where was their faith when they banned kanwar yatra, Janmashtami celebrations and Ram Navami processions and objected to setting up of Durga Puja pandals? When I became CM, I asked about kanwar yatra preparations and was advised to continue with the old tradition of a muted kanwar yatra because I was told that it could lead to riots. I told them to go ahead with it and that I will take responsibility,” the CM said.Harping on his govt’s crackdown on criminals, he added, “Troublemakers now know that if they take law and order into their hands, there are only two places to go — jail or jahannum (hell).” The CM also had a word of caution for kanwar yatris. “During the yatra, which will start in a few days from now, I appeal to devotees to maintain discipline and dignity and don’t give your opponents an opportunity to point fingers at you.”Emphasising the need to choose the “right” representatives, Yogi said, “Where there is rule of law, good governance follows and with that comes prosperity, development and investment. The strength to take courageous decisions comes when you choose good public representatives.”As an example, he cited the rapid rail project from Delhi-Meerut, which is now operational. “The project, which has shortened commute time from Delhi to Meerut to just 40 minutes from three hours, was conceived before I became CM, but the SP govt did not have the courage to go ahead with it because they did not have the intent. We took the decision,” he said.Invoking Rajiv Gandhi’s quote that for every rupee allocated for public welfare, only 15 paise actually reached the beneficiary, Yogi targeted SP and Congress: “They committed dacoity of 85 paise even before the launch of welfare projects. They never had the intent to carry out development and if one is to compare Ghaziabad, which is considered the gateway to UP, it was synonymous with lawlessness, gang wars and filth. Films were made on that,” the CM said. “But today, Ghaziabad has become the growth engine of NCR. We have a 12-lane expressway, Hindon terminal, RRTS and Delhi-Dehradun Expressway here. Who would have even imagined all these before 2017?”
