UP assembly elections: Sirathu all set to ensure a thumping victory for Keshav Maurya, says Amit Shah

PRAYAGRAJ: Union home minister Amit Shah said in Kaushambi on Friday that there was no need to campaign in Sirathu as people have already made up their mind to ensure a thumping win for Keshav Maurya.
"When Keshav Murya was BJP's state president, the BJP had won more than 300 seats in the state. This time, too, the party will win more than 300 seats. The first four phases of voting in fact have already cleared the mess of SP and BSP," he said at a rally in Kaushambi.Maurya is contesting from Sirathu seat of the district.
“When Akhilesh Yadav was the chief minister, he had offered as many as 45 posts to people including family members,” he said.
Referring to recent Kanpur ED raids, Shah asked Akhilesh to speak about his connection with the trader dealing in fragrance.
“If SP is voted to power, it would collect properties and if BJP is voted to power, it will take care of poor and downtrodden people,” he added.
Under Yogi govt, UP got rid of mafia in just 5 years: Amit Shah
Shah further warned voters of Sirathu, "If cycle (poll symbol of SP) is voted to power, then goons and mafia like Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmad and Azam Khan will be out of jail," and appealed people to vote for BJP if they wanted to keep them behind the bars.
He claimed that BJP has wiped out all its rival camps like SP, BSP and Congress in four concluded phases and appealed to voters to ensure a thumping win for Keshav Maurya.
He said, "People voted BJP to power in 2014 and 2019 parliamentary polls and 2017 assembly polls and now there is another chance to hit a four in 2022."
Addressing a rally in Pratapgarh's Rampur Khas area later, Shah claimed Yogi Adityanath's government ended the "mafia" raj in the state bringing down the number of violent crimes substantially.
"Dacoity reduced by 72%, loot went down by 62%, murders by 31%, kidnapping by 29%, while rape cases went down by 50%. This has been done by the BJP government," Shah said.
He attributed the nurturing of criminal elements to previous governments of SP and BSP, and asked people to vote for the BJP if they wanted criminals to stay behind bars.
"This SP-BSP, BSP-SP, the governments of 'bua and bhatija' pushed the state into control of strongmen and mafia. The BJP government in just five years relieved the state of the mafia," Shah said, referring to Mayawati as 'bua' and Akhilesh Yadav as 'bhatija'.
The leader referred to the jailing of politicians such as Ateeq Ahmed (SP), Mukhtar Ansari (BSP), and Azam Khan (SP) as an indicator of previous governments' patronage to the mafia.
"They will come out again to harass you. Ensure BJP's victory and the remaining criminals will also go behind bars," he urged voters.
He said the BJP government reclaimed public land worth Rs 2000 crore encroached upon by the mafia and built houses for the poor there in line with "vision" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.