Union Minister Anurag Thakur  |  Photo Credit: Times Now
New Delhi: A day before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections begin, Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday hit out at the Congress and exuded confidence that the BJP would return to power. Speaking to Times Now’s Navika Kumar, the BJP leader also touched upon the ongoing Karnataka hijab controversy.
“The people of UP handed over responsibility of the state to BJP 5 years ago. We approach them with our report card. We brought the state out of ‘mafia raj’, women are safe in UP today,” he said.
Countering claims that the BJP was on the ‘backfoot’ in the poll-bound state, Thakur also said that that top BJP leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda had receiving a favourable response while undertaking door to door campaigns. “Akhilesh Yadav could not go door to door campaigning because of Muzaffarnagar riots…every fourth day riot in UP ‘stick’ to Akhilesh Yadav,” he jibed.
While the legthy farmers protest against the now withdrawn farm laws had prompted suggestions that the BJP might face resistance from voters in the state, the the UP election co in-charge insisted otherwise. Highlighting initiatives taken up by the state and central governments to aid farmers, he said that the community had been and continued to be with the BJP.
Polling is scheduled to take place in 58 assembly seats spread across 11 districts in the western part of the state tomorrow. “This year’s result (for the first phase) will be better that last time. The people of UP will press the lotus (BJP symbol) button on February 10 when polling starts,” he assured.
“On March 10, when the results come, Akhilesh ji will say EVM bewafa hai…” he added.