Justifying calling himself a ‘Chowkidar’, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that just as yogi and sanyasi he was a ‘chowkidar’ of dharma, as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, he was ‘chowkidar’ of Indian Constitution.

“There is a mad rush among people to call themselves ‘chowkidar’ because they know that ‘chowkidar’ is the man who ensures protection. The slogan ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ has become a craze with the people who want to see India as a developed nation,” Yogi Adityanath said in a statement issued here on Friday.

He said that during Mayawati’s regime, there was loot of government resources. The same was the case during Akhilesh Yadav regime when government money was squandered for personal gains.

“Such people are scared of ‘chowkidar’ because they know if people become ‘chowkidar’ it will be the end of corruption,” the Chief Minister said.

The ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ poll campaign was launched last week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by pre-fixing ‘Chowkidar’ to his Twitter handle. Several BJP leaders, including party president Amit Shah and other Union ministers followed suit, adding the pre-fix ‘chowkidar’ to their names on their Twitter handles in support of the campaign. 

On March 20, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the caller tune of ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’. 

BSP president Mayawati had taunted the BJP’s ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign, accusing Modi of changing his profile from ‘Chaiwala’ to ‘Chowkidar’ only to get votes in the Lok Sabha polls.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Mayawati said that ever since the campaign was launched, people like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were in a fix on whether they should remain people’s representatives or become ‘chowkidar’.

Yogi replied that people who are neck deep in corruption are now scared of these chowkidars. “The chowkidars will bring a transformation and give a befitting reply to corrupt politicians in this election,” the Chief Minister said.