Previous govts reduced eastern UP to 'mafiawaad' & poverty, BJP govt ensuring its development: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on opposition parties and said the previous governments in Uttar Pradesh led by them reduced the state's vital eastern part to ''mafiawaad'' and poverty, but the BJP government is now writing a new chapter of development.

The prime minister was addressing a rally in Sultanpur after inaugurating the 341-km Purvanchal Expressway.

The expressway links state capital Lucknow with Ghazipur and has been constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 22,500 crore.

The prime minister said that development under previous chief ministers was limited to places where they had homes and families, but the present regime is giving fruits of developments to the eastern region as good as to the western part of Uttar Pradesh.

The previous governments reduced the vital eastern part of the state to ''mafiawaad'' and poverty, but the BJP government is now writing a new chapter of development, he said.

The prime minister said the six-lane expressway will serve as the lifeline of the eastern region and give a big push to economic development of the region and the state.

The state goes to assembly polls early next year.

Modi landed on the Purvanchal Expressway airstrip in a military transport aircraft.

Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath received the prime minister at the airstrip after he landed in an IAF C-130 Hercules plane.

The 3.2-km airstrip has been constructed on the expressway to facilitate emergency landing of fighter aircraft. From the airstrip venue, the prime minister also witnessed an air show by different aircraft.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)