Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the party needed to develop its own political narrative to counter the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party. He was addressing a rally at Azamgarh - the lok Sabha constituency of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Wednesday.
The move is seen as a clear departure from its stated policy of forging alliance with other secular parties in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2019 lok Sabha elections. On August 27, Akhilesh had attended a Mahagathbandhan rally in Patna organized by Rashtriya Janata Dal chief lalu Prasad Yadav.
“People believe the blatant lies of the BJP but do not accept the truths of Samajwadi Party like development and welfare schemes for all. The BJP is a party of dream merchants and they are leading the people up the garden path. The dreams promised by the BJP are divorced from the truth, yet people were impressed by them. We will have to devise our own narrative to counter the BJP so that the trust of the people ion us is restored,’’ said Akhilesh.
“First they promised ‘Acche din’ and now they are talking of `New India’. The BJP had promised to hike minimum support price of different crops and double the income of farmers. The NDA government has singularly failed to deliver to farmers yet they have come out with a new slogan of ‘New India’ and people seemed to believe it. No on is asking as to what measures were taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last three years to double the farmers’ income,’’ commented the SP chief.
“I want to understand the difference between ‘Acche Din’ and ‘New India’. Such a situation is possible only when the youth get employment and farmers’ income increases. The NDA has failed to deliver on both,’’ said he.
Accusing the BJP of spreading cow vigilantism, Yadav said, “The BJP had sought votes in the name of cow but did nothing for its protection. It is concerned for `Bharat mata’ but we are worried about `Dharti Mata’ as without accelerating development, carbon emission from India cannot be curtailed.’’
Attacking Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the SP chief said, “The SP government completed lucknow- Agra Expressway in 22 months. The Yogi government can never achieve the target of taking the Expressway to Ghazipur as they have made no provision in the budget and were seeking Central funds for financing the strtech.”
“I welcome Yogi government’s proposal of linking Poorvanchal Expressway with Ayodhya and Varanasi but have doubts that it will ever be completed,’’ he added.
Akhilesh defended his government’s decision to give away Yash Bharti awards to people drawn from different sections. Recently, an RTI query revealed that the previous SP regime gave away Yash Bharti to cronies of SP leaders and nepotism prevailed in selection of awardees.
The SP chief also accused the BJP of using money to lure MlCs and party leaders to topple the serving Chairmpersons of various District Panchyats.
