People have buried the politics of caste and religion by ensuring a massive victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies in Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Thursday.
Addressing BJP workers at the party's state headquarters in Lucknow as the poll results showed a clear BJP majority, he said the 'misleading' campaign run by the Opposition over the past 2-3 days have been set aside by the people who reposed faith in the good governance of the BJP.
He was apparently taking a dig at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for raising questions over EVMs.
"The false propaganda regarding EVMs and election material over the last few days have been rejected."
Adityanath greeted PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for ensuring the return of the BJP for a second consecutive term in Uttar Pradesh.
"The People of UP have buried the dynastic politics and also politics of caste and religion by ensuring victory to the BJP and its allies," Adityanath, who was the BJP's face in Uttar Pradesh polls, said.
Continuing with his tirade against the Opposition, he said people have supported the politics of nationalism, security and development.
The BJP had gone into the elections with the Apna Dal (Sonelal), led by Union minister Anupriya Patel, and Nishad Party headed by MLC Sanjay Nishad.
"The mammoth victory of the party proves that the politics of development and good governance has been blessed by the people of UP. We will take forward our pledge of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' (inclusive development)," he said.
The BJP government's effort on the law and order front in the state, and implementation of development policies along with work done for the poor has led to this victory, he said.
As he spoke to the media here, Adityanath himself was building on an unassailable lead of over 80,000 votes against his nearest SP rival Subhawati Upendra Dutt Shukla in the Gorakhpur Urban seat.
According to the counting trend around 7.30 PM, Adityanath has polled 1,33,641 votes while Shukla was at 51,975 votes.
The BJP party office was jam-packed with supporters who raised slogans in favour of Adityanath and Modi, punctuated with occasional chants of 'Jai Sri Ram'.
The supporters spotted saffron caps and stoles with large lotus print and most appeared busy taking pictures of the proceedings.
They also occupied the roof of the party office and police officials had a tough time managing the traffic outside the party office located opposite the state assembly building.
As Adityanath reached the stage, BJP leaders started applying colours to each other to celebrate the victory.
While the BJP leaders applied him colour, the chief minister threw two fistfuls of dry colour over the supporters standing right before the stage.
He later offered sweets to state BJP president Swtantra Dev Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Parasad Maurya before offering them to supporters.
