Express News Service
LUCKNOW: Rejecting the oft repeated BJP rhetoric of ‘double engine’ rule, Samajwadi Party chief and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the ruling dispensation of the BJP both at the Centre and UP had betrayed the farmers of the state due to their wrong policies.
While interacting with media persons as part of his campaign in Aligarh on Saturday, Akhilesh claimed that in the current polls, the voters had decided to root out the BJP from the first phase itself. He reiterated that the SP would be getting 400 of 403 seats this time leaving three for the saffron camp.
“Farmers had to protest for a year against the three contentious farm laws. As elections approached in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, the BJP withdrew the black laws,” the SP chief said, adding that the saffron party had “destroyed” the farmers.
He sought an explanation from the ruling party as to why the three farm laws were rolled back if the party was finding them favourable for the country’s farmers earlier.
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The SP chief claimed that the BJP had betrayed the farmers by not fulfilling its promise of double income for farmers. “We should come together to defeat them,” he added.
Calling the upcoming elections vital for India’s politically most crucial state, the SP chief said it would decide the future of the country and its democratic set-up as well.
The SP president said the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls was going to be “bhaichara” versus the BJP, adding that the saffron party was indulging in negative politics as opposed to the positive one practised by his party.
Calling out the BJP’s slogan “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas,” the SP chief said it was the most fake and deceptive catchline coined by the ruling party. He also raised the issue of dousing Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate. It may be recalled that the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame at India Gate was merged with the Eternal Flame at the National War Memorial, barely 400 metres away, last month. However, many including ex-servicemen and opposition leaders had criticised the Centre’s decision.
Moreover, Akhilesh referred to the upcoming Central Vista saying the saffron party was bringing in a new parliament and might change the Indian constitution as well. Akhilesh also hit back at Yogi Adityanath over his ‘garmi’ jibe asking if “our baba Chief Minister is a compressor”. “If he feels so much garmi (heat), he should go back to Uttarakhand,” said Akhilesh.
Notably, CM Yogi has been launching a veiled attack on the SP in his poll rallies across western UP saying that the candidate of “Tamanchawadi Party” from Kairana is threatening that the “garmi (heat)” is yet to calm down. “After March 10, the heat will cool down,” the Uttar Pradesh CM has been claiming.
Akhilesh is making his debut in the UP Assembly elections by contesting from Karhal constituency in his traditional stronghold of Mainpuri.
