Fear of Defeat in Bypolls Resulted in Unusual SP-BSP Partnership, Says Yogi Adityanath

Lucknow: On the final day of campaigning for Lok Sabha by-elections in Phulpur and Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the pre-poll understanding between Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party was proof that the two had already accepted defeat.

Addressing a public gathering in Gorakhpur, he said it was the fear of defeat that the made the unusual coalition possible. “The abnormal coalition between Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party shows that they have already accepted their defeat. This is purely selfish understanding between the two and has nothing to do with the development of the state,” the chief minister said.

Expressing confidence that people in both constituencies would reject the partnership, he said BJP’s candidates in Gorakhpur and Phulpur will win with huge margins.

While canvassing for votes for BJP candidate from Gorakhpur, Upendra Dutt Shukla, he said the people of the town had elected him MP five times, and “the fast-paced development work done by him would give his party the victory”.

“When fertilizer factory will start in Gorakhpur, the youth here will get employment opportunities and the farmers will also get good quality of fertilizer. The SP-BSP together could not give houses to the poor in 11 years, but the BJP government has been providing houses to the poor in just 11 months,” he said.

“The previous SP regime was busy with illegal mining and cutting down of trees whereas our government has completely banned anything and everything that is illegal. Till now we have recruited 42,000 policemen and one lakh more job opportunities are in the pipeline,” he added.

The voting for by-elections will take place on March 11 and the results will be declared on March 13. Adityanath had vacated the Gorakhpur parliamentary seat to become the chief minister of the state, while Phulpur was vacated by Keshav Prasad Maurya after taking oath as the deputy CM.

While the BJP will seek to retain the seat and also increase its victory margin, opposition parties will try to wrest it and send a signal before the 2019 elections.

The BJP has fielded Upendra Shukla from Gorakhpur and Kaushlendra Singh Patel from Phulpur while Congress has fielded Surhita Chatterjee Karim from Gorakhpur and Manish Mishra from Phulpur. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Praveen Kumar Nishad from Gorakhpur and Nagendra Singh Patel from Phulpur parliamentary seats.