UP Ministers Make Pakoda, Poori, Jalebi Amid Opposition's No-Jobs Charge

The BJP's Allahabad South candidate is confident the Modi government would be able to counter the opposition's criticism on unemployment this election season. Nand Gopal Gupta, the BJP MLA in the southern part of the Uttar Pradesh town where the Kumbh Mela is held, is contesting from the same seat again.

During his rounds of Prayagraj - which was formerly known as Allahabad and whose constituencies still retain the old name - the minister in the Yogi Adityanath government has been seen making tea and frying pakodas at local markets, surrounded by supporters.

"Samajwadi Party's people are the ones who are unemployed," Mr Gupta told NDTV at a crowded night rally in Prayagraj.

"When the Purvanchal Expressway was being built during their (Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav) time, it cost Rs 15,000 crore. But we made a wider, better, longer expressway with a budget that's Rs 4,500 crore less. Think about it, where would this Rs 4,500 crore have gone?" Mr Gupta said, while his supporters beat drums and cheered around him.

In campaign videos, the BJP MLA is seen frying pakodas, pooris, jalebis and making tea at local markets while his supporters shouted slogans praising him and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Mr Gupta said thousands have been given jobs by the BJP government in UP and no one had to "pay for jobs". He denied his gesture of making snacks at the markets had anything to do with optics on employment.

"People call me to their shops, tell me 'Nandi bhai, please come to our shop, make something' for us. It's showing love for the people," Mr Gupta told NDTV.

Mr Gupta's ministerial colleague Sidharth Nath Singh was also seen frying pooris and pakodas in Prayagraj, in what their supporters say was an affirmation to entrepreneurship.

"I'm MSME minister. I have given data to show how many jobs we have created. The opposition has not even once said the data is wrong. We have given Rs 3 lakh crore loans to MSMEs in the last five years and employed 2.60 crore people. The data has everything about who got how much money and who got employed where," Mr Singh told NDTV.

The opposition, especially the Congress, has often made it a point to mention "pakoda politics" while criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the BJP, since 2019 when the Prime Minister in a televised interview said a person selling pakodas cannot be considered unemployed.

The opposition says the Modi government's employment and industry focussed programmes such as Make In India and Start-Up India have lost the plot and spiralled down to making only pakodas.

Allahabad's three seats - north, west and south - will see voting on Sunday in the fifth of the seven-phase elections. Counting is on March 10.