NITI Aayog's Healthy States ranking: Mayawati slams Centre, UP government

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Mayawati on Thursday fired a double-barrelled gun aimed at the BJP government at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh for the state's poor showing in the NITI Aayog's Healthy States ranking.

Uttar Pradesh had fared the worst in the second edition of the report focuses on measuring and highlighting the overall performance and incremental improvement of the states over a two-year period (2016-17 and 2017-18). The report was released on Tuesday and Mayawati highlighted that despite BJP being in power at the Centre as well as in the state, Uttar Pradesh had faired the worst. "It is a matter of shame that according to the NITI Aayog report, UP is the worst state in the country in terms of public health," she wrote. "Then what is the benefit of having a double-engined BJP government at the Centre and in UP? What is the point of development if the lives of crores of common people are hellish?"

Mayawati, hurting from a forgettable showing of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the Lok Sabha election 2019, has been relentlessly attacking the Yogi Adityanath government since it came to power in 2017. This year, she had hoped to blunt the BJP wave in the Lok Sabha election but despite combining forces with arch-rivals in Samajwadi Party, failed to make an impact. While she has since cut ties with SP, Mayawati may be hoping the NITI Aayog report provides the ammunition she needs to launch fresh attacks with.

The report itself has been prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and with technical assistance from the World Bank.