LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s jibe in the Assembly, “Achcha hai ab aapney pravachan sunney ki aadat daal li hai” (It is good that you have started listening to sermons), targeting leader of Opposition,

’s Ram Govind Chaudhary, only highlighted the vacuum for a strong Opposition in the state.

In his typical style marked often with aggression, the CM demolished the Opposition, which could neither resist nor challenge him during his over two hourlong speech from 1pm to 3.20pm.

It was not only one of Yogi’s longest addresses in the House, but also one of the most aggressive when he mounted an attack on the Congress, SP and BSP, pointing out specific instances from pre-Independence history to Partition, then of the Congress regimes, firing on kar sewaks by

government and the alleged failure of the SP and the BSP governments in the past.

The leader of Opposition and leaders of the BSP and Congress legislature parties, Lalji Verma and Aradhana Mishra respectively, chose to quietly listen to him, while Yogi attacked Nehru (for partition, though without naming him), then Mulayam Singh Yadav for his controversial remark, “ladke hain, galti ho jaati hai” (boys will be boys), in connection with the rape accused in a case and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav (though without naming him) for reportedly sending his daughter to join the CAA protests.

Yogi again hit the SP and the BSP, saying that the two parties had forgotten the days when the House was bleeding, with dozens of injured MLAs being wheeled out of it and today they were questioning his action against those protesting against the new citizenship law.

The CM also challenged the Opposition to a debate on crime statistics, tersely telling the leaders not to quote manipulated figures of the NCRB to project a rise in the state’s crime graph. Yogi snubbed the LoP over the “wrong figures”, saying it hits the sanctity of the august House.

When the chief minister warned, “Jo police ke saamne marne ke liye aayega, marega hi” (anyone challenging the police will meet his end), there was complete silence in the House for a few seconds, but apparently no one dared to oppose him.