Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Friday that the strategy to construct a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya was formulated in Balrampur in 1949 giving the people of Balrampur the ‘first right’ on Lord Ram.

The chief minister credited PM Modi for ending a 500-year wait by establishing the Ram temple. He said this achievement was possible through the power of voting.

Addressing a public meeting in Utraula, Balrampur, in the Gonda Lok Sabha constituency, he said, “It is well-known that people of Congress and SP could never have done this work because they have always questioned the existence of Lord Ram. This is why the slogan ‘Abki Baar, 400 Paar’ is echoing across the country.”

Continuing his attack on the Opposition, Yogi said that Congress and the SP have a history of being against Lord Ram. He accused them of being antinational, who encourage and support terrorism and divide society along caste lines.

He called the elections a contest between Ram bhakts and Ram drohis.

Appealing for votes in favour of Gonda’s Lok Sabha candidate Kunwar Kirtivardhan Singh, the chief minister said the I.N.D.I. alliance is trying to undermine the reservations meant for the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes. “These are the people who insult Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. They want to push the country towards instability and chaos through appeasement policies, but the public will not let that happen,” he asserted.

“People of I.N.D.I alliance are the same who created an identity crisis for every citizen in the country. During the Congress era, there were news reports of corruption every morning and terrorist attacks by evening,” he added.

CM Yogi recalled the food grain scam in Gonda during the SP rule. He said that SP people now talk about distributing ‘free atta and data’ while they are the ones who used to rob the poor’s ration. He urged the public not to trust such people stating that no one can now steal the rights of the poor.

Highlighting the development under his rule, the CM said PM Modi has ended ‘commission khori’ (corruption) by opening Jan Dhan accounts for every poor person. Now, money is being sent directly into accounts through DBT. For the prime minister, the public is his family. PM Modi has announced free treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh every year for every senior citizen above 70 years.

“Congress and Samajwadi Party had fired bullets at Ram devotees. The country can never forget it. Hence, use your vote to ensure these opponents of Lord Ram lose their deposits,” Yogi added.

CM Yogi remarked that in this election, ‘Ramdrohis’ are on one side, and ‘Ram Bhakts’ are on the other. He emphasised that for ‘Ram Bhakts’, serving the public is of utmost importance. In this context, the BJP will play a crucial role in building an ‘Atma Nirbhar’ and ‘Viksit Bharat’.

Attacking the Opposition, he added, “During the Congress era, when a terrorist incident occurred, they would say the terrorists were from across the border. However, in the past 10 years, there hasn’t been a single terrorist incident in the country.”

Yogi stated that under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, world-class infrastructure, highways, railways, and airports are being constructed across the country. The airport in Shravasti has become operational. A new university is being established here in the name of Maa Pateshwari, and the construction work of medical colleges in Gonda, Bahraich, and Balrampur is underway.

Aiming at the Samajwadi Party, he said, “Remember the condition of the roads during the Samajwadi Party’s rule. At that time, traveling on the roads was difficult. It used to take 4 hours to travel from Gonda to Devipatan, whereas today, this distance is covered in 45 minutes. This is Modi’s guarantee.”