Rajnath gets his timbre back, warns Mayawati

He also referred to the Group-C appointments and free books issues and drought condition in the state. Interestingly, among those assembled to welcome him were those who had been issued Group-C appointment letters by his government.

The BJP leader said state party chief Vinay Katiyar and BJP ministers had already asked the Chief Minister to create jobs for those issued appointment letters during his government, distribute free books to students from Class 1 to 5, irrespective of their castes, take measures to tackle the drought and postpone collection of ‘lagaan’ from farmers till the situation improved.

Rajnath said free books to all students cost only Rs 6.14 crore, and not Rs 31 crore as quoted by Mayawati.

He expressed the hope that the Chief Minister would make efforts to get the stay on the Group appointments vacated and distribute free books to all students.

He exhorted party workers and leaders to become responsive to the people’s aspirations in order to get the party to the number one position again. The party did not fare as poorly in the Assembly elections as was being reported, he said.

‘‘The BJP got only 0.5 per cent votes less than the SP which emerged as the single largest party. The party lost more than 25 seats by a margin of less than 500 votes.’’

Rajnath said he got cooperation from other state leaders during the elections. ‘‘What let us down was our overconfidence,’’ he said. Time has come to learn a lesson from the past mistakes, he said.