Yogi Adityanath will prove critics wrong: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

NEW DELHI: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the lone Muslim minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, today defended the BJP's choice of controversial leader Yogi Adityanath as the next UP chief minister, saying he will work for the party's "inclusive growth" agenda.

Minister of State for Minority Affairs Naqvi said that Adityanath will prove his critics wrong by his developmental work and will emerge as the best chief minister.

"I congratulate him. He has been in public life for a long time. He will realise the Prime Minister's commitment of inclusive growth in Uttar Pradesh. Definitely he will prove best chief minister of the state," Naqvi told PTI.

Rejecting apprehensions of Adityanath being a hardline Hindutva leader, Naqvi said he was a "hardline leader of inclusive development".

Naqvi said Adityanath will prove all political pundits and analysts who have concerns regarding him "wrong".

"I know him personally for last 20 years. He takes everyone along. He will definitely prove all wrong," the minister said.

Adityanath, a Parliamentarian from Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur constituency, was elected as leader of BJP's legislature unit at a meeting held in Lucknow.

The saffron party has picked its national vice president Dinesh Sharma and state unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya as Deputy Chief Ministers.

The BJP scored an emphatic victory in the UP polls by winning 312 seats in the 403-member assembly.