Launching a scathing attack on the Samajwadi Party (SP), newly appointed Uttar Pradesh BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary on Tuesday said their PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) mantra actually stands for “Parivarik Dal Alliance” (dynastic alliance), and said that all the constituent parties in the INDIA bloc are run by families.
In his first press conference at the party headquarters in Lucknow, Chaudhary said, “The opposition’s ‘Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA)’ was actually a “Parivarik Dal Alliance” and the parties in the INDIA bloc, including the Samajwadi Party, Congress, RJD and TMC, are run by families.”
“The Samajwadi Party was registered in 1992, and long before that, in 1984, the BJP had appointed Kalyan Singh as the leader of the opposition. Whenever the Samajwadi Party had the opportunity, Mulayam Singh Yadav consistently served as chief minister, and when the party again secured a majority in 2012, Akhilesh Yadav was made chief minister despite Azam Khan being senior,” he added.
Thanking the central leadership for assigning him the role of the UP BJP chief, Chaudhary said, “As far as my style of working is concerned, I have 35 years of working experience in my constituency. I take everyone along. Now I am in the state unit. All the members of the state team are workers. I will take all of them along. For me, the ground workers are sarvpriya (dear to everyone).”
“I have always been concerned about safeguarding the maan-sammaan (honour) of the workers and will keep doing that. The party will work unitedly to secure better results than the 2017 Assembly elections in the 2027 polls,” Chaudhary said.
Asked about Gorakhpur being in the spotlight after his election as state president, Chaudhary said the BJP believes in “sabka saath, sabka vikas” and the party leadership focuses on development of every corner of the country.
Chaudhary also said the BJP will observe former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary on December 25 under the ‘Atal Janm Shatabdi Samaroh Abhiyan’.
He said party office-bearers, workers and public representatives along with local citizens will carry out cleanliness drives at the memorials of iconic leaders and lamps will also be lit at places associated with Vajpayee and at the BJP district offices to pay tribute.
“Vajpayee established good governance and launched several welfare initiatives, including subsidised rations for the poor, Kisan Credit Cards for farmers, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Golden Quadrilateral project, which paved the way for national progress through the upliftment of villages, the poor and farmers. From December 25 to 31, the BJP will organise ‘Atal Smriti Sammelans’ in all 403 assembly constituencies of the state as part of ‘Good Governance Week’,” he said.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Lucknow on December 25, where he will inaugurate the newly constructed Rashtriya Prerna Sthal and unveil 65-foot-tall statues of Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Vajpayee. The prime minister will also address a public meeting,” Chaudhary said.
PM Modi had pledged in 2022, on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti, to take the immortal saga of the sacrifice of Guru Gobind Singh’s sons, Baba Fateh Singh and Baba Zorawar Singh, to the younger generation. Various programmes will begin from Vir Bal Diwas on December 26 to mark the martyrdom days of the Sahibzadas, with district-level meetings and outreach in schools, colleges and universities, Chaudhary said.
Responding to a question on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Chaudhary said that the BJP workers and office-bearers are actively participating in the exercise to ensure the removal of the names of the deceased, displaced and ineligible persons from electoral rolls and the inclusion of all eligible voters.