“Rahul Gandhi is frustrated seeing the overwhelming support Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been getting from the poorer sections of the society. In contrast, even Congress leaders and workers are making light of Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Nyay yatra,” Pathak said in a telephonic interview with Deccan Chronicle.
The BJP leader, who had addressed a meeting marking the culmination of the Khammam cluster of Vijay Sankalp yatra in Nalgonda, was reacting to Rahul’s charge that the double-engine government in Uttar Pradesh meant “an imminent jungle raj”.
Pathak said that the Congress was a washout in the Hindi belt only because of Rahul Gandhi, whose incompetence is getting exposed and noticed by even his party’s alliance partners.
On the impact of the pre-poll alliance between Samajwadi Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Pathak dismissed it as a pact loaded with contradictions and devoid of any mass base.
“The welfare schemes launched by the double-engine government have generated a pro-BJP wave, which will sweep all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state,” he said.
On why the state stood second in the maternal mortality rate and high absenteeism and lower enrolment in government schools, the BJP leader admitted that there were some shortcomings. He said that on the positive side, healthcare services had doubled under Yogi Adityanath.
Pathak said, “UP tops with its excellent expressway network. The Adityanath government has set new standards by electrifying all the villages, which all are now connected with the district headquarters and Lucknow, thanks to the fibre optic network.”
Stating that mafia raj was a thing of the past in the state, he said, “Uttar Pradesh has attracted investment proposals worth over `40 lakh crore in 2023.”
On the party’s prospects in Telangana, he exuded confidence that they would make giant strides and would win a majority of Lok Sabha seats in the state in the ensuing general elections.