Samajwadi Party said that it would contest five Assembly seats in the Gujarat assembly polls later this year and support the Congress in rest of the seats. The Gujarat Assembly has a total of 182 seats.
Addressing press persons on Monday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “We do not want to weaken the Congress against the BJP in Gujarat. Hence we will contest only in five Assembly seats where the SP has sizeable support base.”
Rs Rs I will certainly go to Gujarat for campaigning in support of SP candidates. If the Congress wants then I could also address some public meetings for their candidates too,” said the former UP Chief Minister.
Claiming that though people of the country were saying that the Gujarat poll results would be a mandate for the Modi government at the Centre, the SP chief said, “In UP too, the 2019 lok Sabha elections would be a deciding factor when youths will give their verdict against the BJP’s failures.”
Speaking on the Gujarat model showcased by the BJP during elections, Akhilesh said,”We can go for one example as Ahmedabad lacks Metro Rail even after starting the project 10 years back while in lucknow it was commissioned within two years.”
“It is the people of the country who have to decide whether UP model of Samajwadi Party government or the Gujarat model of the BJP is good for them ,” said the SP leader.
When asked about charges levelled by state BJP that corruption was rampant during the previous SP regime, the former CM retorted, “It is well known that the BJP is the most honest party and other Opposition parties are totally corrupt.”
Hinting at an early lok Sabha polls, SP chief called on the students and youths to teach the BJP a lesson for their pseudo -nationalism in the next general elections.
Rs Rs Students have already started showing their resentment by defeating communal forces in college and university students union elections in UP and other parts of the country. But this fight has to be taken to the logical conclusion so that the BJP, which promised to give jobs but failed to deliver, could be uprooted,” said the SP chief.
Yadav however refused to comment over whether his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav would be given any post in the party. He said that if anything happened on those lines, the media would be informed. He also refused to comment on Yogi regime’s proposal to merge Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards.
When his attention was drawn on the Indian Air Force (IAF) air show on the lucknow -Agra Expressway on Tuesday, Akhilesh said,” I don’t know of others but if I was the CM, then I would have been the first person to sit and watch see the show.”
He also expressed desire to meet soldiers on the borders like Prime Minister and other leaders were doing.” I will ask my seniors and juniors at Sainik School to invite me sometime for meeting the soldiers on the border,” he said.
The SP chief also felicitated Samajwadi Chchatra Sabha candidates who bagged four of the five seats of Allahabad University Students Union recently. The function was also addressed by leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary, who said that the 2019 lok Sabha polls would be a fight between Akhilesh Yadav and Narendra Modi. The new AUSU president Avinash Yadav along with other student’s leaders too addressed the gathering.