COVID-19 shadow over Yogi govt’s 3-yr celebrations

Lucknow: The shadow of the coronavirus scare was now falling on the three-year celebrations of the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.

The Yogi government will complete there years in office on March 19.

Official sources said that mega celebrations on the occasion were likely to be postponed and the Chief Minister would hold a simple function to release a booklet marking his three years in office.

Adityanath, on March 19, will become the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister to complete three years in office in the state.

Earlier, Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh had served as Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers but one of them completed three years. Singh, in his second stint, had the longest tenure of a little over two years between 1997 and 1999.

Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson, Harish Chandra Srivastava said: “Yogi Adityanath has broken several jinxes with his will power and determination. He demolished the notion that BJP Chief Ministers do not enjoy a long term. Then he broke the Noida jinx by visiting the place multiple times.”

Earlier, it was believed that a Chief Minister who visits Noida lose power.

The spokesman further said that Adityanath also enjoyed an unblemished tenure as Chief Minister.

“He is known as a tough administrator but even his bitter critics have not been able to point a finger at him personally. There is no blot of corruption on the BJP government that he heads. His government has worked for all section of society including farmers, youth and underprivileged,” he said.

Even though there may be no mega celebrations when Adityanath completes there years in office this week, the BJP will go ahead with its programmes planned earlier.

All BJP Ministers and legislators will begin touring the various districts to create awareness among the people about the welfare schemes initiated by the party governments.

They will also take feedback on the implementation of the programmes and submit the same to the party’s state headquarters.

Adityanath also plans to embark on a tour of the various districts from March 19.

He will visit the districts in a random manner to take stock of the impact of his schemes at ground zero.

The BJP is planning to unleash a publicity blitzkrieg on the social media to mark the occasion.

The social media will witness a windfall of the good work done by the state government and present the Yogi regime as a model for good governance and development.

Meanwhile, the opposition will use the occasion to criticize the Adityanath government.

The Samajwadi Party will hold a demonstration on March 22 where it will issue a chargesheet against the state government.

UP Congress Committee President Ajay Kumar Lallu said that his party would release a booklet detailing the failure of the ruling BJP government on March 19.

By IANS