Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the 'river of development' had stopped in Uttar Pradesh before 2017 due to the dynastic approach of 'fake samajwadis'. Addressing a rally in Bijnor virtually, PM Modi praised the Yogi Adityanath government for developing all regions of the state equally without any discrimination.
Batting for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, PM Modi said if his government is voted to power again, development works will take place at a faster pace. He said the Yogi Adityanath government has paid over Rs 1.5 lakh crore sugarcane dues to farmers which is more than the money paid by the earlier two governments in UP.
Speaking about the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, PM Modi said that during CM Yogi's tenure, criminals themselves ran to jails and demanded that they be locked up.
"They have been waiting for these elections for years. They have just one hope, that the elections come soon and there is a change of government so that they can come out of jail," the Prime Minister said while addressing the Bijnor rally virtually as he could not be physically present there due to bad weather.
"They (criminals) are hoping for the old 'mafia raj' government to come back. Criminals who had run out of UP, are hoping for govt to change so that they can come back. These criminals want reimbursement from the people of UP for their dacoity and loot business which is shut for the last 5 years," he said.
The Prime Minister said molestation of women was very common earlier. "Situation was so bad that after incidents of chain snatching, people were thankful that they were still alive," he said and quickly added "CM Yogi's government freed women from that fear... we gave women their true honour".
Lashing out at previous Uttar Pradesh governments, he said, "Those who were in power earlier were not concerned with faith or your needs. Their only agenda was to loot UP. The people of UP have bluntly said that no matter how much politics some people do on the basis of money, muscle power, casteism, communalism, they will not get the love of the public."
"All they did was to keep quenching their own thirst and that of their close ones. They kept quenching the thirst of their own coffers. This selfish thirst soaks all streams of the river of development," he said.
The Prime Minister also expressed hope that the BJP will get an overwhelming majority in Uttar Pradesh once again. The seven-phased polling in the country's most populous state will take place between February 10 and March 7. Counting will be done on March 10.
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