UP election is about brotherhood vs BJP: Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday took a swipe at the ruling BJP asking if anyone saw criminals fleeing the state as the party has been claiming. He said the SP will ensure a historic defeat to BJP and will send Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath back to Uttarakhand.

“Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar gave us the Constitution on which the country is run and this election is also about safeguarding the Constitution.

“This is why Samajwadi Party is taking along people from all groups. This election is about brotherhood versus BJP,” the SP chief said, addressing a joint press conference with his alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary.

“The people of the state will vote on issues and send the chief minister back to Uttarakhand,” Akhilesh said referring to Yogi Adityanath’s ancestral roots in Uttarakhand. Asked about the attack on AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in Meerut on Thursday, the SP president said such incidents should not occur in a democratic nation.

“People are saying that the criminals have left Uttar Pradesh. Did anyone see these criminals when they were leaving the state? Violence is not acceptable in democracy and it raises questions on the law and order situation in the state,” Akhilesh said.

On farmers, the SP president said the BJP made a false promise of doubling the income of farmers by 2022. “The government is standing with industrialists. The potato farmers of the region are facing a lot of trouble. Some of the farmers even dumped their potato harvest outside the residence of the Chief Minister. “The government then announced it will buy potatoes from farmers, but did not. On coming to power, we will make arrangements so that the produce of farmers in the region is not wasted,” he said. Akhilesh also ridiculed the recently announced budget saying if this was “amrit” (elixir) budget, were the previous ones “zeher” (Poison)? Addressing the younger voters, Akhilesh said that the BJP government has humiliated those who demanded jobs and employment. “The youth of this state will use the power of his vote to give a historic defeat to BJP in the state,” he warned the government.

He criticised it also for its COVID management and asked if anyone could forget the times “when people were running from pillar to post to get beds in hospitals, oxygen and medicines”. “How can one forget the pictures of the migration? Everyone still remembers the picture of a mother pulling her child on a suitcase,” he said.

Talking about businesses in the Taj city, the leader accused the government of forcing several businesses to shut down with its policies. The SP Chief said even though his party did not get any seats from Agra in previous elections, he has always worked for the development of the region, and elaborated on the works done in the Chambal area.

RLD Chief Jayant Chaudhary said, “Earlier over 1 crore tourists used to visit Agra every year but this has reduced to just a quarter in the last few years. This has happened because of the lack of support from the government.

He said tourism in Agra will be restored to its previous levels when the alliance comes to power.