Face of Nation : Explaining the rationale behind selecting Yogi Adityanath for the top job in Uttar Pradesh despite having no political background, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the chief minister was work-oriented and made up for his lack of experience with his work ethic.
Speaking as the chief guest at a ground-breaking ceremony to launch industrial projects worth Rs 65,000 crore in Lucknow, Shah gave an insight why Adityanath was made the Uttar Pradesh CM in 2017 despite having no administrative experience.
“No one thought Yogi would be the chief minister. Many people called me, saying ‘Yogi has never even run a municipality, why are you making him CM’. It is true. He had no experience in administration but our aim was dedication and loyalty, and ‘parishram ki shamta‘ (potential to work hard), and the BJP handed over the reins to Yogi Adityanath, that decision was right and he has made it right,” PTI quoted Shah as saying.
The BJP won a landslide victory in the UP elections in 2017, bagging 325 seats in the 403-member Assembly, when it announced Yogi Adityanath, mahant (head priest) of the Gorakhpur temple, as the CM. The decision had surprised many since the party did not name any chief ministerial candidate ahead of the elections.
Expressing confidence that the state would contribute to PM Modi’s ambition of becoming a $5 trillion economy, Shah said the path to achieve the target passed through Uttar Pradesh. “The path to become a $5 trillion economy passes through Uttar Pradesh and I am sure that the state will contribute to it by becoming a USD 1-trillion economy,” PTI quoted him as saying. The Home Minister assured investors that “along with the state government, the Centre is also committed to the development of Uttar Pradesh”.
Lauding Adityanath for ringing in several changes for the development of the state, Shah said, “The Yogi government has removed the biggest hurdle in development by improving the law and order situation in the last two years.” “Development is not possible till the law and order situation is bad. I don’t want to take the names of any government but the administration here had been badly politicised. But, now, under the present dispensation, the administration has been made ‘Janata ka Sewak’ (servant of the people) in the real sense,” Shah said.
