SP-Congress spreading misinformation against Ayodhya out of fear of its journey of heritage and development: Chief Minister Yogi
CM Yogi Adityanath celebrates Diwali at Vantangiya village, Jungle Tinkonia Number Three
Chief Minister inaugurates and lays foundation stones for 52 development projects worth Rs 82.41 crore
CM asserts that drug traffickers who destroy the lives of others will not be allowed to thrive
Gorakhpur, November 2026 : Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “Having failed to stop the momentum of Ayodhya’s heritage and development, the people of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress are now spreading misinformation against Ayodhya out of fear. Those spreading misinformation against Ayodhya know that if this journey of heritage and development continues in the same manner, the politics of SP and Congress will be buried forever. A crisis of identity will emerge before those who had once created an identity crisis for the state.”
The Chief Minister stated, “If this journey continues with the same strength and unity, a crisis of identity will arise for Congress and SP themselves, which is why they have started resorting to misinformation.”
Strongly asserting his government’s resolve against drug traffickers, the Chief Minister said that his government would not allow drug traffickers to thrive.
CM Yogi visited Vantangiya village, Jungle Tinkonia Number Three, on Sunday to celebrate Diwali with the forest-dwelling community. For the tenth consecutive time as Chief Minister, he shared the festivities of the festival of lights with the Vantangiya community.
After concluding Deepotsav in Shri Ayodhyadham on Saturday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath arrived at Vantangiya village, Tinkonia Number Three, on Sunday morning. He inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for 52 development projects worth Rs 82.41 crore related to the development of various gram panchayats in the district, eco-tourism, the Global Nagar Bazaar and other initiatives.
Extending heartfelt Diwali greetings and best wishes to the gathering present on the occasion, CM Yogi referred to the construction of the Ram Temple and the rapid development of Ayodhya as well as the entire state, and said that everything is possible if there is the will to accomplish it.
Reminding people of the situation before 2017, he informed saying ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in Ayodhya was prohibited, and lathis and bullets were used. At that time, opposition party leaders used to say that Lord Ram had never existed. They used to claim that not even a bird could fly over Ayodhya. These people would mobilise forces against the construction of the Ram Temple.
He said, “Those who could not stop the momentum of Ayodhya, could not restrict the procession of devotees of Lord Ram, and failed in every attempt to obstruct it, are the very people who are now engaged in defaming Ayodhya.”
The Chief Minister said, “When the Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 following Prime Minister Modi’s call, development works were undertaken at a rapid pace. Roads have been constructed, electricity has reached people, airports are being built, new railway lines are being laid, and the people are receiving the benefits of facilities without discrimination.”
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath appealed to everyone to share happiness with others during festivals and stay away from intoxicants and gambling. He stated, “Intoxication leads to destruction, while gambling makes a person a slave. These two harmful tendencies can destroy even a well-settled family.”
The Chief Minister further informed, “The state government was taking action against drug traffickers. After the elimination of mafias, the next phase of action has begun specifically against drug traffickers.”
He emphatically stated, “Those who destroy the lives of others will not be allowed to thrive.”
The Chief Minister said that when a good government comes to power, it also brings good facilities, whereas a bad government joins hands with drug traffickers and plays with the future of the children.
Calling upon the youth to stay away from intoxicants, the Chief Minister stated, “They should study well. The BJP’s double-engine government would take responsibility for guaranteeing jobs and employment.”
He appealed to the food-producing farmers to ensure good crop yields and said that the government would ensure several times the value of their produce through processing and value addition.
He said, “Lord Ram had returned to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile, but the Vantangiya community had been left by the British first and subsequently by the Congress and SP governments to wander in the forests for more than a hundred years and face hardships from place to place.”
He added that there were 56 Vantangiya villages in Uttar Pradesh, for which no one cared. Although the country became independent in 1947, these forest villages never received freedom. Their names were not included in the voter lists; there were no roads, electricity, drinking water facilities, ration cards, schools, hospitals or pension facilities, and not even a single permanent house.
CM Yogi said, “Today, we can confidently say that the development works undertaken after 2017 have brought prosperity to the forests of the Vantangiya villages.”
He said that he had been visiting this place continuously since 2007-08. For the last 10 years, he had been coming here to celebrate Diwali after Ayodhya in his capacity as Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister interacted with the people in a question-and-answer format regarding the condition of the Vantangiya village before and after 2017. He asked them whether they had a permanent road before 2017, whether the government had built any school for them, whether the government had provided electricity, and whether it had made arrangements for drinking water. The people answered all these questions in the negative.
Thereafter, the Chief Minister stated, “After 2017, they had roads for commuting, ration cards, permanent houses, schools and Ayushman cards. The people responded affirmatively to all these points. At that time, there was no electricity. Even highly studious children were compelled to study under the light of oil lamps. Today, they have all facilities, including electricity, roads and drinking water.”
CM Yogi further added that this is the difference between the NDA led by the BJP leadership and the PDA of SP-Congress. Their (SP-Congress) answer to every question is ‘No’, whereas our answer to every question is ‘Yes’. They never asked about people’s needs, whereas now the government itself is coming forward to ask.
Without naming the political parties, CM Yogi said that for one, the Gandhi-Nehru family and for the other, the Saifai family constitute the entire country and state. For us, Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 25 crore, is our priority. Irrespective of caste or region, whether a person lives in a village or a city, is poor or rich, or belongs to the Nishad, Dalit, Rajbhar or Chauhan community, we consider everyone as one family and work to connect them with government schemes.
He further informed, “All the people living in the Vantangiya villages belong to extremely backward communities and deprived and Dalit families. They could have received facilities even before 2017, but providing these facilities requires time and political will. Expecting people whose willpower has ended and who have thought only about their own families to think about the poor, Dalits, deprived sections and extremely backward communities is, in itself, a pipe dream.”
The Chief Minister said, “Ram Rajya arrives with Diwali, and Diwali arrives when the period of exile comes to an end. Today, that very Ram Rajya has arrived in these Vantangiya villages.”
He said that he had come among the people of the Vantangiya village to share the happiness of this Ram Rajya and celebrate Diwali with them.
Chief Minister Yogi appealed to the Vantangiya community to preserve the history of their journey from struggle to access to facilities.
He said, “They should remember what their condition was earlier, how much they had struggled, and what the situation regarding facilities was then and what it is now. They should tell the present generation as well as future generations how they had been deprived of facilities for 70 years and how, after 2017, the BJP’s double-engine government considered them a family and extended the benefits of facilities and government schemes to them. The BJP government had undertaken these initiatives for the advancement of their interests and their prosperity.”
The Chief Minister told the Vantangiya community to inform their present and future generations that the houses constructed, the land provided and the electricity made available to them were all due to the BJP government. They should tell them that they too were deprived, poor, Dalit and backward, but previous governments had kept them.
The Chief Minister said that since the people of the Vantangiya villages had been deprived of the opportunity to become voters and were not anyone’s vote bank, they were kept deprived of facilities under previous governments. They were denied access to government schemes, the right to vote and the opportunity to elect their own panchayat.
He added that we did not turn them into a vote bank; instead, after 2017, we recognised the Vantangiya villages as revenue villages and ensured that they were provided with all kinds of facilities.
The Chief Minister said that for us, Ram Karya and Rashtra Karya are one and the same. As a devotee of Lord Ram, we have embraced every forest dweller, every hill dweller, every deprived person and every Dalit. We have made them partners in Ram Karya, and Ram Karya is the same as Rashtra Karya.
He told people belonging to every section of society that the government stands with them in every circumstance.
MP Ravikishan Shukla, who was present at the programme, welcomed CM Yogi and said, “The land of Uttar Pradesh was blessed to have Yogi Adityanath as its Chief Minister. Before Yogi Ji became Chief Minister, there was neither security nor employment in UP, and there were neither healthcare facilities nor roads.”
He added, “Today, under the leadership of CM Yogi, a new picture of development is visible in every sector.”
Making a sharp remark about SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, he said that before going to Ayodhya to have darshan at the temple of Lord Shri Ram, he should apologise for the firing on kar sevaks during the SP regime.
The MP also made an emotional reference to the close personal bond between CM Yogi and the people of the Vantangiya community.
On this occasion, Cabinet Minister in the state government Dr. Sanjay Nishad, Mayor Dr. Manglesh Srivastava, Kushinagar MP Vijay Dubey, MLC and BJP State Vice-President Dr. Dharmendra Singh, MLAs Vipin Singh, Mahendrapal Singh, Shriram Chauhan and Pradeep Shukla, Vice-Chairperson of the State Commission for Women Charu Chaudhary, Jagadguru Swami Santoshacharya Satua Baba, who had arrived from Kashi, Mahant Ravindradas of Kalibari, BJP Regional President Vinod Rai, Regional Vice-Presidents Yudhishthir Singh, Rajesh Gupta and Sanjeev Rai, District President Janardan Tiwari, Metropolitan President Ramesh Pratap Gupta, Kshetra Panchayat Administrator Vandana Singh, Ranvijay Singh Munna and other prominent dignitaries were present on the dais.
CM honours beneficiaries of various schemes
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath honoured beneficiaries of various schemes from the dais during the Deepotsav and inauguration-foundation stone laying ceremony by presenting them with Diwali gifts, certificates and other items. The beneficiaries included Horticulture Department beneficiaries Ram Milan, Vanshu, Hind Devi and Kuturi from Vantangiya Tinkonia Number Three; beneficiaries of the Agricultural Mechanisation and Crop Residue Management Scheme of the Agriculture Department, Indrajeet from Pipraich Block (grant of Rs 1.20 lakh) and Kaushal Kishore from Jungle Kauria Block (grant of Rs 1.20 lakh); Sanju Sahani and Suman Devi, beneficiaries of the Tool Kit Scheme of the Industries Department under the Halwai trade; Ayushman Scheme beneficiaries Subhawati, Golu, Chanda, Rampreet, Jitendra and Aman; and beneficiaries of the Chief Minister’s Rural Housing Scheme, Gangotri, Champa, Anu and Sulochana. The beneficiaries received honours from the Chief Minister. In addition, the Chief Minister also honoured the heads of the Vantangiya settlements, Ramganesh, Ramdayal, Balram, Vishwambhar, Parmatma and Jairam.
Along with celebrating Vantangiya Deepotsav at Vantangiya village, Jungle Tinkonia Number Three, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also presented a Diwali gift in the form of development works worth Rs 82.41 crore. By pressing a button, he inaugurated 26 development works worth Rs 77 crore 97 lakh 50 thousand and laid the foundation stones for 26 development projects costing Rs 4 crore 43 lakh 79 thousand.
The major projects for which foundation stones were laid include an interlocking road to be constructed at a cost of Rs 3 crore 65 lakh 11 thousand, connecting Rajahi Chauraha to Pipraich Road via Jungle Tinkonia Number Three; an Eco Park in Kusmhi Forest at a cost of Rs 4 crore 84 lakh 81 thousand; and the construction of a Global Nagar Bazaar in Pipraich Nagar Panchayat at a cost of Rs 1 crore 95 lakh 51 thousand.
At Jungle Tinkonia Number Three, after the stage programme, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inspected the exhibition organised through stalls by various departments, including Forest, Agriculture, Horticulture, Women Welfare, Child Development, Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Basic Education, Animal Husbandry, Health, ODOP, National Rural Livelihood Mission, Social Welfare and Khadi and Village Industries.
Through the exhibition, people were being provided with information about the government’s public welfare schemes. He also stopped at the stalls and interacted with the people present there. During this visit, he conducted the Annaprashan ceremony for children at the stall of the Child Development and Nutrition Department and showered affection on them.
CM Yogi also conducted the Godh Bharai ceremony for pregnant women and presented them with gifts.
Deepotsav inaugurated by lighting lamps
After inspecting the stalls, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath proceeded on a visit to the Vantangiya village. He first visited the house of Ramganesh, the head of the Vantangiya community.
Lighting a lamp amid the rangoli decorations outside his house, the Chief Minister inaugurated Deepotsav for all the villagers. There, he presented a Diwali gift to an elderly woman, Lakshmina Devi. Thereafter, he met people in the village, accepted their greetings and interacted with them warmly.
