Hitting out at the Congress, the state unit of BJP said that Rahul Gandhi’s pro-farmers’ rally was merely a political stunt to earn sympathy from the people in the name of kisan.
“Instead of holding padyatra, the Congress leader should have spoken to Samajwadi Party leaders to solve farmers’ problems. It would have been better had the Congress impressed the Akhilesh Yadav government to clear the cane dues,” BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said on Monday.
"The plight of the farmers in the state as well as in the country was due to the wrong policies of the Congress government, which ruled the country most of the time. The Congress leader is organising such padyatras to cover up for its lapses,” he said.
The BJP spokesman said that the crushing season has started in the state but the Akhilesh Yadav government has so far not announced SAP for the sugarcane. "The cane dues is over Rs 4700 crore and despite court intervention the government has failed to clear its dues," he said.
“If Congress is so sympathetic towards farmers it should have protested against the SP government because 50 of the 75 districts have been declared drought hit. Instead of alleviating the condition of the farming communitym, the UP government was busy celebrating the birthday of its president,” Pathak said.
Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi during a padyatra in Saharanpur, alleged that while he was meeting the farmers, PM Narendra Modi was interested in visiting foreign countries.