People have given BJP a clear mandate: Anurag Thakur

On a day when the Bharatiya Janata Party came back to power in four states, union minister for information and broadcasting and the party's co-incharge for Uttar Pradesh Anurag Thakur told DH’s Amrita Madhukalya that the development policies and welfare scheme were at the heart of the saffron party’s victory in the state.

The BJP has won big today? What would you say has led to these victories?

We were in power in four states, and we have come back to power in all of them. The people have given the BJP a clear mandate, and a mandate on prime minister Modi’s good governance, development and pro-poor schemes, which has actually worked in the favour of Bharatiya Janata Party.

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When you say development, what are the sectors where BJP’s work proved fruitful?

Every sector, every section and every factor is important for us. We can’t say one segment has worked in favour of the BJP. We have done development across all segments in Uttar Pradesh, from West to East. If you look at Eastern Uttar Pradesh, you could see the work that has been done. From the fertiliser plant to AIIMS, from the cancer hospital to the expressway, from airports to ports – all of these have been done in the last five years. Congress has always spoken of the Look East policy, we have the Act East policy. And that has helped us.

Can you please elaborate on the party’s welfare schemes in Uttar Pradesh?

The overall development of Uttar Pradesh and the welfare schemes worked for us. If you see, 15 crore of the state’s population got ration twice monthly in the last 19 months. People know that this is a government that has delivered. Under the PM Awaas Yojana, 45 lakh houses were built by the BJP government. The law and order situation has improved immensely. All of these are factors in the mind of a voter.

For a while, it looked like the farmers’ protest would damage the BJP’s chances in UP. How did the party work around it?

I don’t think that farmers’ protest was a factor. Look at Lakhimpur Kheri, we won all the seats there. We won seats in Hathras, too. Look at Western UP, we won the majority of the seats there as well. This clearly indicates the actual farmers understood that PM Modi is in their favour and he is committed to doubling their income. That is why in the last five years, the government has doubled the procurement and at the same time has given one and a half times the farm prices.

BJP’s forming a government in Uttarakhand, a state where a party never comes to power. Have people voted for the BJP as there is a BJP government in the Centre?

In Uttarakhand, too, good governance, pro-poor schemes have worked for us. As in other state, in Uttarakhand, too, there is a huge appeal for PM Modi.

What are the party’s plans for Punjab now?

We will form a government in Punjab. We’ve done it in the past. Whether it is in Assam, or in Haryana, we have contested elections on our own and formed the government. We can do it in Punjab as well, in the coming years. The only issue this time was that we did not have enough time because our coalition partner of the last four decades left us just months before the elections. But I can assure you the way we work at the grassroots level we will win Punjab after five years.

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