BJP to Rule for Next 50 Years in Centre, Uttar Pradesh: Keshav Prasad Maurya

Lucknow, June 23: No party can dislodge the BJP from the Centre or Uttar Pradesh for next 50 years, claimed Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya Sunday. Exactly a month after the BJP's impressive win in the Lok Sabha polls, Maurya also predicted that there was no future for the SP, BSP or the Congress in the state.

"I can say with full confidence that for the coming 50 years, I cannot see any future for the SP, BSP and the Congress in UP. In the coming 50 years, nobody will be able to dislodge BJP governments both at the Centre and in the state," said the deputy chief minister Maurya. Maurya's claim was similar to what Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said in September 2018 as the BJP president while addressing the party leaders in the national executive meeting in New Delhi. Digvijaya Singh Hits Out at BJP Over Keshav Prasad Maurya Calling Pulwama Attack 'A Big Accident', Questions PM Narendra Modi.

Amit Shah had said, "If the BJP wins the 2019 Lok Sabha election, no one can throw us out in the next 50 years." BJP general secretary Ram Madhav too had made a similar claim earlier this month.

Maurya boasted about the BJP's future prospects while addressing a meeting of the party's backward class unit. Urging the party workers to pull up their socks for the upcoming UP assembly bye-elections, Maurya said, "The amount of responsibility which was on you in 2014, 2017 and 2019, the same amount of responsibility is cast on you for the upcoming UP assembly bypolls."

Addressing the party's function, the deputy chief minister also accused the SP, BSP and Congress of never respecting people belonging to other backward classes and only exploiting them. Taking a dig at SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Maurya said, "Akhilesh Yadav has now been reduced to being a leader of only a section of the Yadavs' community. He is no longer a leader of the backward class."

Mocking at the post-poll collapse of the SP-BSP alliance, Maurya said, "It seems the SP and BSP are no longer on talking terms (SP BSP mein kutti ho gayee hai)." "While one is angry with the nephew, the other is angry with the aunt. When both of them were unable to stop the BJP despite being together, how can they stop the BJP now after parting ways? Such parties should be given farewell."

Maurya also said there had been some lapses on the part of the party, otherwise both the SP and BSP would have been wiped out in the Lok Sabha polls. "By helping the lotus bloom in Amethi, the party workers have categorically stated that the Congress story in UP has ended," he said. "Similar messages have emanated from Kannauj, Badaun and Firozabad where the members of the Saifai family have lost. Akhilesh Yadav will now be known as the last ruler of the Saifai family," claimed Maurya.

Maurya also exhorted the party workers to gear up for the party's enrollment drive. "No one is untouchable for us. For Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Rahul Gandhi there could be some untouchables, but not for the BJP. We believe in 'sabka saath, sabka vikaas, sabka vishwaas," he said.

The deputy chief minister also exhorted party workers to strive for the BJP winning at least 300 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2022 assembly elections. Paying tributes to Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Maurya said, "The day Article 370 is abrogated, it will be a true tribute to Syama Prasad Mookerjee." Article 370 accords special status to Jammu and Kashmir.