Yogi Adityanath praises PM Modi and Amit Shah for BJP's "historic victory"

As the BJP marched towards a grand victory in the Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today said alert voters have rejected the "opportunistic and casteist" politics of mahagathbandhan forged by the opposition parties.

"It is high time for the opposition to introspect and shun politics of negativity," Yogi Adityanath said in his first interview after trends showed massive gains for the BJP.

He praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for BJP's "historic victory". "Alert voters have rejected opportunistic and casteist politics of the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance)," he said.

According to latest trends, the BJP was leading in 60 of the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh.

"People across the country have rejected the negative politics of casteism, dynastic politics, and have accepted with open arms the positive politics of development and nationalism. This time our slogan was ''Abki Baar 300 Paar, Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkaar'' (This time beyond 300, once again Modi government)," he said.

Congratulating the Prime Minister for the "historic" win, he said, "This is a victory of his (Modi's) leadership, the strategic and organisational planning of BJP chief Amit Shah and the result of hardwork of crores of BJP workers. I also congratulate party chief Amit Shah and crores of BJP workers."

On what his message would be for the ''mahamilawati'' (grand adulteration of opposition parties), Mr Adityanath said, "Politics of negativity and politics of opportunism have been grossly rejected by the alert voters and the democracy of India.

"Under the leadership of Modiji, India''s honour has gone up at the world level in the last five years. The achievement of the BJP on the internal and external security front, the historic success in the realm of infrastructure development and implementation of various schemes for public welfare have greatly attracted the voters towards the party," he said.

The Chief Minister said the way in which various central schemes were implemented in the state with "full commitment" touched the voters and it resulted in a historic victory for the BJP.

"The opposition must introspect, and the sooner it shuns politics of negativity, the better it will be for it. Otherwise politics of negativity will create an existential crisis for them," he said.

"After Modiji became the Prime Minister, the way in which development, governance and security was taken forward ... the entire elections revolved around it. We went ahead only with this. The opposition tried to play the caste card and ultimately had to suffer a humiliating defeat," Adityanath said.

He said the people have not only discarded the "negative" politics of the opposition, but also shunned politics of ''pariwarwad'', ''vanshwad'' and ''jatiwad'' (nepotism and casteism) which will not succeed anymore," he said here.

Mr Adityanath said the politics of gathbandhan has lost its fizz in the state.

He said that Priyanka Gandhi had campaigned in the state in 2014, 2017 and also this time, but the Congress did not gain.