Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday accused the BJP-led NDA Government of treading the footsteps of the Congress by unleashing the vendetta against its political opponents. Mulayam also declared that for the 2017 Assembly polls thekedar (contractors) commissionkhor (corrupt) and dabang (toughs) will not be given the party ticket. The SP chief was addressing a meeting of the party cadre here to mark the 83rd birth anniversary of the socialist ideologue Janeshwar Mishra, better known as ‘Chote lohia’.
Mulayam’s observations against the BJP assumes significance in the wake of the tightening of noose around the neck of Yadav Singh, the suspended chief engineer of NOIDA and his proximity with the top echelons of the ruling Samajwadi Party. The CBI on Tuesday had conducted simultaneous raids at 16 places of Yadav Singh, his friends and relatives in NOIDA, Agra, Ferozabad and his IAS son’s-in-law residence in lucknow.
“People were disillusioned with the Congress due to rampant corruption, raging inflation and growing unemployment during its regime and the BJP was quick to capatialise on the opportunity and was able to capture power. The Congress framed all its political opponents in one case or the other. They framed me, lalu Prasad, Jayalalithaa and many others. The BJP is now following the footsteps of the Congress. I told a BJP leader that the Congress had a long stint in power but if the BJP continues with its tirade against its opponents then it stands to lose heavily and it will cut short its tenure in office at the Centre,’’ said the SP chief.
Harking back to the Nehru era of national politics, Yadav said, “Ram Manohar lohia was the most vociferous critic of Jawaharlal Nehru, later lohia was elected to continue with his campaign against Panditji and later his anti-Nehru stance in public meetings attracted huge crowds but the then Prime Minister took it in strides and never indulged in vendetta against his opponents”. He added, “lohia had challenged Nehru on the state of poverty in the country where 27 crore people or a family of five people survived on income of Rs 1 per day and Nehru accepted the fact.”
lamenting the abysmal tally of mere 5 MPs in lok Sabha, Mulayam slammed his party leaders and cadre for their incompetence and lack of hard work for the poor show of the party during the May 2014 Parliamentary elections. “Aapne hame kaheen ka nahi chhoda (you have led me nowhere). Of the five MPs one is the wife of Akhilesh, two are his cousin brothers while one is his nephew. Despite the depleted strength the SP has been able to voice the grievances of the poor and downtrodden in a forceful manner,” said the SP chief.
“Had you worked little harder and won us 30 lok Sabha seats the Samajwadi Party would have been in power at the Centre today. This number of seats would have prevented the majority for the BJP and all parties would have rallied against it thus paving the way for the formation of non-BJP secular Government at the Centre,” sighed the SP chief.
Criticising his son for inaction he said, “I had asked the State party to give me a report ascertaining the causes of the poor performance of the party in 2014 lok Sabha polls, I am still waiting for the report. Do not try to hide your failures and weakness, face it.”