'I am the sahyogi and our dear Chief Minister Adityanathji is the Yogi'

Keshav Prasad Maurya, 47, is the deputy chief minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. The main OBC face of the BJP in UP, he is in charge of the public works department, food processing, entertainment tax and public enterprises department. Excerpts from an interview with Ajit Kumar Jha and Ashish Misra

Q. Now that you have become the deputy chief minister of UP, what happens to your position as party president?

A. The BJP is committed to the principle of one person, one post. Now that I've been entrusted the job of the deputy chief minister, I shall have to relinquish that position and a new party president will be selected in due course.

Q. You have been called the new Kalyan Singh of the BJP in UP. As the tallest OBC leader and a tireless campaigner, you are among the main architects of the NDA's 325-seat win in UP, 312 by the BJP...

A. The BJP has two crore karyakartas (workers) who worked tirelessly for the party. The massive mandate is because of the vision of our party president Amit Shah and our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who all of us are proud of. I am simply a humble karyakarta.

Q. Are you disappointed that you were not made chief minister despite your contribution to your party's unparalleled victory in UP?

A. I am very happy at the massive mandate we got in UP. As a committed party worker, I am the 'sahyogi' and our dear chief minister Adityanathji is the yogi.

Q. In the past, you have levelled charges of corruption against the previous PWD minister, Shivpal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party. As the PWD minister and deputy CM in the Yogi administration, what do you propose to do about those allegations?

A. I will launch an investigation against all those who are charged with corruption and ensure that the guilty are all sent to jail, never mind how high their position in government.

Q. What are the key challenges facing the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in UP?

A. The key challenge is laid out in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pithy phrase: sabka saath, sabka vikas. It involves vikas (development), loan waiver for farmers, providing rozgar (employment) to youth so that they do not have to migrate to other states for jobs, an ambitious vision of infrastructure development and making Uttar Pradesh a model state in line with other BJP-ruled model states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Q. Instead of concentrating on serious economic problems, why is the BJP government wasting all its effort on anti-Romeo squads arresting young men arbitrarily and attacking people's right to privacy?

A. Women all over the state have suffered during the previous administration because of the goondagardi (criminality) of these lumpen goons. If you talk to 100 girls today, 98 feel safe since we have implemented the law and order strictly within a week of our assuming power. We must stop women's exploitation at all levels and empower them so that they feel safe and can take care of themselves. Preventing women's utpiran (exploitation) is part of the BJP's election manifesto.

Q. Why is the Yogi administration carrying out a campaign against abattoirs, in the process hurting the interests of the minorities who own them and work in them?

A. As part of the promise in our BJP manifesto, our administration is merely shutting down illegal slaughterhouses as they violate environmental standards demanded by the National Green Tribunal. But we have not touched the legal ones. n