RSS didn't interfere in selection of Adityanath: Venkaiah Naidu

RSS did not interfere in the selection of Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, M Venkaiah Naidu, who was BJP's central observer for election of the state legislature party leader, said on Monday.

Amid criticism over BJP going for Hindutva hardliner Yogi Adityanath as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Naidu said it was the legislators who decided on the leader and that is the system in the party. He asked the Opposition to be "graceful in defeat", accept the mandate of the people and give a "fair opportunity" to the new chief minister.

"It is the legislators under the Parliamentary party board that decide the leader. That is the system in the BJP. RSS never interferes or suggests any names (for the chief minister's post)," Naidu said.

The Union minister also maintained that after discussions with the elected MLAs, he had conveyed their views to BJP national president Amit Shah. "Then, I had a meeting of the legislators. In that meeting, Yogi Adityanath's name was proposed by Suresh Khanna and nine others seconded it," he said. "All the legislators stood up and unanimously agreed to the name. So this is the decision of the MLAs of Uttar Pradesh which was approved by the central party," Naidu said.

His remarks come in the backdrop of allegations levelled by opposition parties such as BSP that BJP's wants to contest the 2019 polls not on the issue of development, but by "polarising the voters".

"That is why they have made an RSS man the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh," BSP supremo Mayawati said on Sunday.