Addressing a function after inaugurating and laying foundation stones for 102 development projects worth over Rs 690 crore in Rampur, Adityanath said a Rampuri knife in the “wrong hands” would be used for dacoity, alleging that the SP had similarly misused power.
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“The Samajwadi Party used the Rampuri knife to grab people’s land, harass and exploit them. Today, under the BJP’s double-engine government, the same knife is being used for the security of the people, and that sense of security has become synonymous with development,” he said.
A Rampuri chaku is a folding pocket or switchblade knife that originated in the city of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. It is highly celebrated for its local craftsmanship and its iconic status in Indian pop culture, courtesy to Hindi films from the 1970s and 80s.
The chief minister also sharpened his attack on the families of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh and senior party leader Azam Khan, without naming them directly.
“Earlier, if there was any development, it was only for two families — the Saifai family or the Rampur family,” he said.Recalling the period before the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, Adityanath alleged that the state faced a crisis of identity, law and order had collapsed, women and traders were unsafe, farmers were driven to suicide, and youth had no employment opportunities.
He also alleged that whenever government recruitment advertisements were issued, the “uncle-nephew duo” — an apparent reference to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav — would indulge in extortion, forcing courts to intervene.
The chief minister further alleged that under the Samajwadi Party government, traditional industries had declined, welfare schemes for the poor were absent and there were no funds for roads, bridges or other infrastructure projects.
Targeting the previous Samajwadi Party government in Rampur, Adityanath alleged that the land of poor people, including members of the Valmiki community, had been forcibly occupied and the voices of Dalits and the underprivileged suppressed.
He claimed that Rampur had undergone a transformation after 2017, with infrastructure projects, improved connectivity and fresh investments replacing what he described as years of neglect.
Highlighting the BJP government’s economic record, the chief minister said Uttar Pradesh had shed its “BIMARU” tag to emerge among the country’s top three state economies.
He said the state now ranked first in sugar and ethanol production, foodgrain and milk output, and was generating the highest employment opportunities. Traditional industries in Rampur, including patchwork, zari work and violin making, had also been revived under the One District One Product scheme, he added.
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Adityanath said the BJP government believed in the “santushtikaran and not tushtikaran” (satisfaction of all, not politics of appeasement), and asserted that development and welfare schemes were now being implemented uniformly across all 75 districts without discrimination.
