Upbeat over successive victories in by elections to three lok Sabha and one assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday dared the BJP government at the Centre to hold simultaneous lok Sabha and assembly polls in the state in 2019. He also endorsed the Yogi Adityanath government’s proposal of ‘ one nation-one election’ policy and demanded that the assembly elections UP should also be held along with 2019 lok Sabha elections.
“We are ready for one nation one election. We also support the recommendation of the state level committee .We have no problem if the voters’ list is linked with Aadhar number. We have no problems with ‘one nation one election’. I ask them (BJP) to implement ‘one nation one election’ from 2019 itself and hold UP Assembly polls with the 2019 lok Sabha elections,” he told a press conference at the SP state office on Wednesday. He was flanked by newly elected Rashtriya lk Dal MP Tabassum Hasan and samajwadi party MlA from Noorpur Naimullah. Recently a seven member committee of UP government headed by state health minister Sidharthanath Singh has recommended for one nation- one election formula.
The SP chief virtually threw down the gauntlet at the BJP after the saffron party’s defeat in the prestigious lok Sabha by-elections to Gorakhpur and Phulpur and its recent drubbing in Kairana and Phoolpur Assembly by poll. While Gorakhpur is the home turf of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Phulpur was held by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Even Kairana was held by a BJP MP, whose death necessitated the bypoll in which his daughter lost to the RlD, whose candidate was supported by all opposition parties.
An Uttar Pradesh panel has recommended simultaneous polls to the lok Sabha and state assemblies, echoing a suggestion by the law Commission of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own view on the issue. Akhilesh, however, rued, “No suggestion was taken from us on this issue”.
A report in this regard was submitted on Tuesday by UP Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh, who headed the seven-member committee constituted by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Akhilesh, earlier welcomed the newly elected RlD MP Tabassum Hasan from Kairana and SP MlA Naimul Hasan from Noorpur, in the state party office on Wednesday, said that perception has made a u-turn from the 2017 assembly polls in the state after the defeat of BJP in all the by polls.
“The BJP government at the centre has failed in all fronts. Farmers are committing suicides and the banking system has paralysed. BJP cannot say any one issue that has benefited the countrymen,” he said while adding that the 2019 lok Sabha polls would be a crucial one and SP will do whatever required for an opposition unity.
“The Kairana and Noorpur elections have given a new lease life to the opposition in the country and people too supported the opposition candidates without considering communal or caste line,” he added. Announcing that SP will contest the coming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, The party national president said,” the SP will contest these elections either by forging an alliance or alone.”