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Updated: Sep 21, 2019 15:18 IST

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that he took the top job in the state as a challenge and that his government has raised the state’s profile in the last two and a half years.

“In March 2017 when I was asked to take charge as CM of UP, there were challenges ahead. Goondaism and mafia apart, there were many issues in UP,” Adityanath said while during the first episode of the ‘Highway to Progress’ programme of HT’s sister publication Hindustan in Agra.

The BJP leader counted maintaining law and order in Uttar Pradesh as his major achievement.

“I took these challenges as opportunity. I am happy that after successful of completion of two and half year we have succeeded in dealing with challenges,” he said.

Adityanath cited the smooth conduct of the Kumbh Mela as one his government’s major achievements and said the administration’s meticulous work ensured that the pilgrimage was a huge success.

“We proved that Uttar Pradesh has everything to achieve its potential. Kumbh earlier was tale of mismanagement chaos. PM Narendra Modi had asked us to project Kumbh as international event. I discussed with foreign ministry and asked to invite foreign ambassadors to Kumbh.”

Adityanath said that he was warned that any adverse incident would bring bad name to the government.

“24 crore devotees came for Kumbh. The police force proved that they can provide security and organize such an event.”

He said the hygiene was maintained and although five crore devotees were in showed up on Mauni Amavasya everything went off peacefully.

He also said that the government successfully hosted the Pravasi Diwas in the Prime Minister’s constituency of Varanasi.

“In Varanasi we set up tent city which was so good that guests who had booked into hotels wanted to come and stay in the tents,” the CM said.

The chief minister also cited the peaceful conduct of the Lok Sabha elections in the state as further proof of his government’s grip on the law and order situation.

“Lok Sabha Elections were spread across 1,63,000 booths but there was no untoward incident. There were no riots in our term and investment increased.”