Two Deputy Chief Ministers in UP to keep Yogi Adityanath free to perform his religious duties: Shiv Sena

Firing yet another salvo at the BJP, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday said Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath should concentrate more on delivering good governance rather than performing his “religious duties”.

“Governing a state as large as Uttar Pradesh will not be as easy as governing a mutt,” said the Sena which has been at loggerheads with the BJP despite being the junior partner at the centre and in the Maharashtra government.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party, which was left with heartburn after it was denied the Deputy Chief Minister’ post by the BJP in 2014, also took a dig at its ally over appointment of two Deputy Chief Ministers in UP, saying it was aimed at keeping Adityanath “free to perform his religious duties”.

“Two Deputy Chief Ministers have been appointed in UP, while for Maharashtra, the BJP says appointing a Deputy CM is against their policy. In Jammu and Kashmir, they teamed up with PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti to get the Deputy CM’s post.” “By appointing two Deputy CMs in UP, Yogi Adityanath has been left free to do religious duties,” Sena said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

“Rather than performing religious duties, Adityanath should focus on delivering good governance and development.  Governing a state as large as Uttar Pradesh will not be as easy as governing a mutt,” the Sena said in a reference to Gorakhpur mutt which is headed by Adityanath.

The Sena said, “Appointing Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister will hasten the construction of Ram temple and new energy will be infused in the Hindutva forces. However, creation of jobs is also important and Yogi will have to work hard for that.”

The Adityanath Government, which was sworn in on Sunday, has BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya and party’s national vice-president Dinesh Sharma as deputy chief ministers.

The Sena asked Adityanath to remember the “imbalance” created in Madhya Pradesh after the then Chief Minister and BJP leader Uma Bharti “focused more on religious activities than good governance”.