2019 Lok Sabha elections: Yogi boasts BJP would bag 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh

It’s not just the Prime Minister who is acquiring a reputation for monologues. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath too is known to launch into long sermons at meetings with bureaucrats, that is when he is not addressing public meetings.

On New Year’s Day, journalists found themselves at the receiving end when the CM invited them over dinner. The invitation made it clear that nothing that the CM would say would be reported. This report, therefore, was compiled by talking to several editors, bureau chiefs and journalists who attended the dinner.

The chief minister boasted that his government had changed the face of the state and that BJP would do even better in the general election than in 2014 by winning more than 71 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019. ‘Our strategy has been finalised’, he declared but refused to share details with journalists.

Annoyed at being told that the poor were being asked to cough up bribes before houses constructed by the state government could be allocated, the CM lost his cool and shouted that the journalist must immediately give the names of the beneficiaries who complained and the names of officials who had demanded bribes. “Give the names now,” he said sternly.

When the journalist fumbled and blurted out that he had himself spoken to people, the chief minister again lost his cool and asserted, “People level false allegations without having a
proof. This happened in a meeting of BJP officials which was chaired by Amit Shahji. One of the senior leaders also said that cuts were being demanded for allotment of houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Amit Shahji asked him, ‘do you have names of the people. Give the names to Yogi ji within half an hour’. A year and a half have gone by but I am still waiting for the complaint.”

Another journalist drew the CM’s ire when he said that preparations for the Kumbh were not complete. “You have not gone to Prayagraj (Allahabad) in recent times,” the CM declared. When the reporter protested and claimed that he
had returned from Praygraj that very morning, the Yogi retorted, “You do not know that facts. The preparations are all complete.” He then churned out figures to enumerate how many bridges had been built, roads widened and the city cleaned up.

The Yogi also recalled how during a visit to a village, he humiliated an eminent citizen who complained that the toilets he was inspecting had been built a day before his visit.

“I ignored him and went near the toilet. It was evident that the toilet was old and could not have been constructed a day before. I asked this gentleman to check the floor of the
toilet. He was reluctant because it was beneath his stature and dignity to inspect the floor. I also asked him to go and check the septic tank and the pit,” the Yogi said amid the peel of laughter.

The CM served a pure vegetarian spread without onion and garlic. It include kofta, mixed veg, dal, and of course paneer.

The journalists however made a beeline for the dessert section which offered fruit custard, jalebi and rabri, cakes and ice cream.