LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath on Monday expressed hope that the newly appointed state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary would bolster the coordination between the organisation and the state government and help the party win all 80 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"We all know his organisational abilities given his experience of having worked as a booth-level, district-level, regional-level and now state-level party leader," Yogi said, while addressing BJP workers who had gathered at the party office to welcome Chaudhary. "We expect that he (Chaudhary) will take along all workers to ensure that the public welfare schemes initiated by the Centre and the UP government reach the people," he said.
Yogi said that Chaudhary worked tirelessly as a UP panchayati raj minister "without any propaganda" while expeditiously implementing Centre's flagship Swacch Bharat Abhiyan through construction of over one crore toilets in the rural precincts of the state. "We should remember how BJP did so well in the UP panchayat elections," the CM said. The BJP had won 67 out of 75 Zila Panchayat chairman seats and nearly 600 out of 826 Kshetra panchayat (Block Pramukh) seats in the rural local bodies elections held last year.
The implementation of schemes executed by the Panchayati Raj department are credited to have played a vital role in BJP's electoral performance in the three-tier local bodies polls which were seen as a semi-final before the 2022 assembly elections that saw BJP coming back to power with an overwhelming majority. "It is the BJP worker who is heading most of the gram panchayats and strengthening the panchayat systems," the CM said.
Adityanath also hailed the newly appointed state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh Saini as a leader who knew the raw pulse of every region in UP. "It was given his vast experience that the Central leadership appointed him in UP," Yogi said. Saini, who has been organisational secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student arm of the RSS, for UP and Uttarakhand was transferred to UP from Jharkhand earlier this month. "Our aim is to associate every person with the BJP while preserving our ideological commitments," Yogi said.
Outgoing UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, too, received appreciation from Yogi. "Hum unhein itni aasani se swatantra nahi hone denge...(we will not let him get free!!)," Yogi said, amid loud cheers from the audience. Yogi said that Swatantra Dev had always been known for his organisational skills. "Those skills should come in handy in strengthening Chaudhary," he said.
Singh, who remained UP BJP chief for a period of three years and three months, is credited to have steered the UP BJP in winning elections after elections -- the most prominent being the assembly polls which saw the return of BJP to power. "Chamatkar to tab hua jab BJP Azamgarh aur Rampur mein bhi jeeti... (Our victories in Azamgarh and Rampur bypolls were magical)," he said. The BJP had won the by polls in Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats vacated by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan. Singh is now the minister in the Yogi cabinet and looking after the Jal Shakti department.
