‘We all toe PM’s line on being united’

In his first newspaper interview since the Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya predicted a strong Bharatiya Janata Party showing in the upcoming by-elections to nine assembly seats in the state, targeting opposition leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi as "feudalist" and "power-hungry".

- Pranshu Mishra and Brajendra K Parashar

The BJP, he said, would repeat 2017 in 2027 by winning more than 300 seats. He also spoke of his relationship with chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Edited excerpts:

By-elections to nine assembly seats are due on November 20. How confident are you about the BJP's showing in these elections? The BJP is poised to win most of the nine seats on the basis of organisational strength and achievements of the double-engine government in the state. We see fight only in one or two seats.

Why do you think that the outcome of the bypolls will be different from the Lok Sabha elections in UP (the BJP and its allies won only 36 of the 80 seats in the state, down from the 64 they won in 2019, while the INDIA bloc won 43)? What has changed in over five months? It is true that our party under-performed in the Lok Sabha polls in the state quite contrary to our confidence and expectations. The Congress-led Opposition succeeded in misleading voters with its false narratives. Now, their lies stand exposed. Moreover, the recent results of assembly elections in Haryana, where the BJP has formed the government for the third consecutive term, has given a befitting reply to the Opposition's false narrative on issues like Agniveer and efforts to amend the Constitution.