Ghaziabad: Likening Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to “a schoolboy who failed four tests and keeps blaming others for it”, chief minister Yogi Adityanath accused Congress and its INDIA bloc partners of trying to create anarchy in the country.Congress has been holding “vote theft” protests against BJP and is demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing him of rigging the draft rolls through voter deletions in special intensive revisions (SIR).At his ‘Loktantra Bachao, Arajkata Hatao’ march at Raj Nagar Extension on Thursday, the CM brought up the Emergency and called it “laughable” that Congress was “giving sermons on democracy”. “Congress is trying to discredit the world’s oldest and largest democracy and in doing so is committing a sin against the country and our freedom fighters,” the CM said.Taking a swipe at the Opposition over its criticism of electronic voting machines (EVMs), Election Commission and SIR, Adityanath said the party blamed constitutional institutions whenever it lost elections. “These are the same people who, when they win elections, have no complaints, but when they lose, blame EVMs,” he said.Referring to Rahul, he compared him to a student who repeatedly fails examinations but keeps finding excuses for his poor performance. “Condition of the prince of Congress is like a boy who is repeatedly failing in exams and, when his father asks, every time he blames others for his failures,” he said. “More or less, this has become the Congress’s tendency. It has lost the people’s confidence because of its corrupt conduct,” he added.Contrasting the period before 2014 with the years under the Modi govt, Adityanath said the country had moved from an era of insecurity, corruption, terrorism and instability to one of development and economic growth. “After Narendra Modi took over in 2014, he helped the country get rid of that negative image. Today, India is the fourth largest economy in the world and is making great economic progress,” Yogi said.He cited infrastructure expansion, metro services, expressways, medical institutions, semiconductor manufacturing and welfare schemes as examples of the transformation. “Before 2014, there was no semiconductor unit in the country, but today there are 12. During the Congress regime, there was just one AIIMS, but today there are 23 AIIMS,” he said.The CM also described Samajwadi Party, BJP’s principal opposition in UP, which goes to polls in Feb-March 2027, as a “pichhlaggu” (lackey) of Congress. SP’s four stints in govt in UP were marked by hooliganism, anarchy, curfews and riots, he said. The CM took part in a 2km padayatra from KWS Society to River Heights in RNE township. He was flanked by Ghaziabad MP Atul Garg, BJP’s district in-charge Bhupendra Choudhary and GB Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma.
