Ready for next wave, will get majority in 2022: Adityanath

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government managed to arrest the second wave of Covid-19 infections in a month and is ready to tackle the next surge, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said, exuding confidence that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will secure a majority in the assembly elections next year.

In an interview to HT, Adityanath described the recently concluded feedback session with senior party leaders BL Santhosh and Radha Mohan Singh as a “normal exercise”, and said any decision on a reshuffle will be taken by the “government and organisation together”.

“We are poll ready. The second wave has been contained in a month’s time and we are better prepared for the third wave,” said the CM, roughly nine months before the state is scheduled to go to polls. “BJP will form a majority government in 2022,” he added.

Adityanath dismissed allegations of data irregularities and poor handling of the Covid crisis, and said he visited 45 districts to check the situation on the ground. “It is easier to be a critic from the comfort of your home through statements on social media…some are still living with their old perception of the state and don’t want to accept the efficiency with which the second wave was contained,” he said.

He said he was pained by visuals of bodies floating in the Ganga but added that such instances of “water burials” were common in the area. “Similar scenes were witnessed in 2012, 2014, 2016,” he said.