Express News Service
LUCKNOW: With preparations for the post-Holi swearing-in ceremony of the Yogi government 2.0 in the final leg, BJP has chalked out an extensive list of over 200 VVIP guests including the prominent opposition leaders. The oath-taking ceremony has been planned in the state capital’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium, which has the capacity to host a crowd of 50,000.
The highly placed BJP sources claimed that also thousands of beneficiaries of various central and state government welfare schemes will also be invited to be a part of the moment. As per the common perception, beneficiaries have voted for the BJP as a huge chunk of voters beyond the caste and regional lines.
Preparations are being made to accommodate at least 45,000 people in the stadium for the swearing-in ceremony.
Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, who may attend the event, the date for which is yet to be finalized, all the prominent opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, UP’s former CM Akhilesh Yadav, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati, will be invited to the swearing-in ceremony. Along with this, the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states are also likely to attend the extravagant event.
In the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh State Assembly elections, the BJP and allies created history by romping home with a two-third majority winning 273 seats for a second consecutive term after 37 years in the history of the state polity. The Congress had returned to power with a majority in the state 37 years ago.
After this, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has not just made history by completing five successful years of governance but by also returning to power with a thumping majority. He has become the first such BJP leader to become the CM for the second consecutive term.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party won 255 of the 376 seats it had contested, its allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISAHD Party won 12 of 17 and 6 of 10 seats, respectively. The Samajwadi Party won 111 of the 346 seats it had contested on. SP allies including Rashtriya Lok Dal won 8 seats and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party won six seats. The Congress and BSP faced the worst rout. While Congress could win just two seats with 2.3 per cent vote share, BSP came down to just one seat with a vote share of 12 per cent from 19 seats and 22 per cent vote share it had got in 2017. Apart from this, Raghuraj Pratap Singh’s Jansatta Dal Loktantrik has captured two seats.
