‘Don’t get carried away by victory, break no rules’

Gorakhpur: On the first arrival of Aditya Nath Yogi after becoming chief minister on Saturday to Gorakhpur, from where he has been Member of Parliament since 1998, the city was decorated for welcome. The route along MP Inter College and Gorakhnath temple was splashed with saffron using marigold flowers and flags while posters and banners were put up everywhere to welcome Maharaj ji, as Yogi is fondly known in the city. As soon as he reached the stage, a huge crowd of traders, district BJP officials, the party's Alpsankhyak Morcha, officials of Hindu Yuva Vahini, officials from educational institutes running under Gorakshpeeth and heads of many other cultural organisations welcomed Yogi. People were seen touching his feet. Former mayor, Anju Choudhary, sitting Mayor Sandhya Pandey, MLA Gorakhpur urban, Radha Mohan Das Agarwal and MLA Gorakhpur rural, Vipin Singh shared stage with the chief minister and Rajyasabha MP Shiv Pratap Shukla was right next to him. Sunil Singh, state president of HYV was not present on the occasion. Before assembly elections, he allied with Shiv Sena and the candidates of HYV fought election for 12 seats. Sunil Singh had said he separated from BJP as the party was not giving respect to Yogi in terms of position in the government. When Yogi became CM, he said he will work for BJP again. When Yogi praised Gorakhpur citizens, people started raising slogans like 'UP rogi hai, dawa Yogi hai' (UP is sick and Yogi the pill). "Gorakhpur is like a lab to me and we made the place mafia-free," said Yogi, adding, "Earlier, when people from Gorakhpur used went out of the state, people were scared of us but now their view about the district has changed. We need to change Uttar Pradesh the same way and ensure rule of law in the state."