Ghosi bypoll: Adityanath campaigns for BJP's Dara Singh Chauhan, says past govts neglected constituency

If someone loses their way in the morning but returns home in the evening, he is not considered lost, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday as he campaigned for BJP's Ghosi bypoll candidate Dara Singh Chauhan who recently returned to the party after a stint in the SP.

Addressing an election meeting here, Adityanath also accused the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress of neglecting Ghosi while they were in power in the state.

The Ghosi bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of Chauhan, who had won the seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, from the SP.

'Subah ka bhula agar shaam ko ghar aa jaye to usse bhatka hua nahi kehte (if someone loses their way in the morning but returns home in the evening, he is not considered lost),' Adityanath said on Chauhan's return to the BJP.

Chauhan was the minister for forest and environment in the previous BJP government headed by Adityanath. He resigned from the Council of Ministers on January 12, 2022 and joined the SP.

The OBC leader resigned from the SP and returned to the BJP in July this year.

Chauhan is pitted against the SP's Sudhakar Singh, who is being supported by the Congress and Left parties. The BSP has not fielded any candidate in the bypoll.

The Ghosi bypoll is the first election to be held in Uttar Pradesh after the formation of opposition bloc INDIA and former SP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) joining the NDA.

Addressing the election meeting, Adityanath further said, 'For the welfare of Ghosi, you do not have to beg anyone. We are committed to serving you. No one can come between you and the development of Ghosi.' Hitting out at the opposition, he said their own development and not Ghosi's is on their agenda.

The Congress and the Samajwadi Party never cared about the development of Ghosi when they were in power in the state, he said.

'It was the Samajwadi Party that heralded social injustice. There is hatred in their genes. It is laughable when they talk about development. They are the people who fired at devotees of Lord Ram and we are constructing the Ram temple in Ayodhya,' he added.

During the SP's tenure, the chief minister said, the development of the state was hindered and only one family benefited.

'Today, there is a double-engine government and efforts are being made to take development to each and every village and corner of the state,' he said.

'The Congress' character is not hidden from anyone. In the COVID-19 crisis, the SP chief (Akhilesh Yadav) was also hiding in his house. Remember that (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and Yogi were ready to serve you. We went everywhere and gave more than two crore vaccine doses for free,' he said.

Adityanath said that only those who witnessed the 2005 Mau riots can understand the importance of Ghosi.

'At that time, the SP was in power and it could not do anything. Now, those who instigated the riots are seen begging for their lives in a wheelchair,' he said in an apparent reference to gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, a five-time MLA from Mau.

Voting for the Ghosi bypoll will take place on September 5 and the counting of votes will be held on September 8.