Express News Service
LUCKNOW: A member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council since 2017, state Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is also Minister of Rural Engineering Service. Defeated from his birthplace Sirathu in Kaushambi district in Feb-March polls by Samajwadi Party’s Pallavi Patel, the sister of BJP ally Anupriya Patel, Maurya believes he would soon find out the reasons for his defeat. His analysis says Mayawati’s BSP and Congress “surrendered” their stakes to the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.
BJP was confident of winning 300-plus seats in the Assembly polls. It failed to touch that target…There were many things at play in the Opposition camp during the elections. We were confident of winning more than 325 seats. However, we did not expect the Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress to surrender their stakes in favour of Samajwadi Party in a tacit understanding. However, we have increased our vote share.
On the contrary, Samajwadi Party accuses BSP of having transferred its votes to the saffron camp?It is all to misguide the people. They already had an understanding among themselves. Excerpts from an interview by Namita Bajpai
Your defeat in Sirathu came as the biggest reverse for the BJP. What were the reasons for your defeat?In elections, victory and defeat are a part of the game. The bottom line is that we have won. We are analysing the factors that might have played a role in my defeat. I think, within a month’s time, we will be out with a report. Based on that we will make the Assembly constituency a permanent stronghold of the BJP.
You have headed the PWD in your previous tenure. Do you find rural development (his current portfolio) more challenging?I always work with dedication. With the same spirit, I fulfilled my responsibilities in the PWD during my first tenure. I am grateful to the party for accepting my request and entrusting me with the responsibility of the rural development department.
All ministers in CM Yogi’s team have to draw a roadmap to set targets. What is your agenda?We all have given presentations to the state cabinet about our priorities. Our 100-day roadmap comprises the ongoing schemes and rest are pertaining to the promises made in our sankalp patra at the time of elections.
How do you plan to ensure the benefits of the welfare schemes reach the last man on the social ladder?I can say with full responsibility that the rural development department is the perfect platform to execute all plans for the uplift of the poor.
The state government is often under attack over unemployment. Do you have any roadmap to stop the migration of the rural youth?Yes. In order to provide jobs to talented and educated youth in rural areas, we are in the process of setting up food processing units as I am in-charge of that department too. We have set up around five lakh self-help groups (SHGs) of women who handle a variety of products in villages. We help them provide a market for those products. We have the target of taking the number of SHGs to 10 lakh. Under MNREGA, women are getting more remuneration than their male counterparts.
In the 2024 general elections, what will be the BJP’s strategy in UP?We have the ‘double-engine government’ through which we are serving the people. People are accepting our ideology. On the basis of the performance of our government in the state plus the guidance of the Prime Minister, we are sure of winning 75-plus seats in the 2024 polls.
