Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Monday that the BSP-SP-RLD alliance would win all the eight Lok Sabha seats going to polls in first phase of elections in West Uttar Pradesh on April 11.
“If the rows of empty chairs in the election meetings addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP are any indication party, it gives a fair indication of the likely mandate to be given by the people in this election,” said the SP chief on Monday.
He said the party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav would win the Lok Sabha election from Mainpuri by the biggest margin in the country. He urged party cadres to devote their all their time and energy for the historic win of Netaji from Mainpuri. He asked party workers to fan out in villages and remote areas of the Mainpuri constituency and apprise the people of the failure of the BJP government and achievements of the previous Samajwadi Party government.
“Netaji’s (Mulayam’s) victory will be historic. His victory will be the biggest in the country (by way of vote margin). All party workers in the constituency must engage in making people vote for the ‘gathbandhan’ (SP-BSP alliance),” he said.
He said the NDA government was not willing to share the record of its performance during the last five years. “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is claming to have developed Ghaziabad as a smart city, while people are facing the worst drinking water crisis there,” argued the SP chief.
Asked about the absence of his uncle Shivpal Yadav from the convoy of Mulayam Singh Yadav for filing nomination, Akhilesh Yadav said: “There is a limit on the number of vehicles by the Election Commission and the entire process is under the scanner of the poll panel.”
On the electoral prospects of the SP candidate Akshay Yadav from Firozabad seat, Akhilesh Yadav said: “There seems to be a contest there but people seems to have decided to ensure the victory of the alliance candidate.” Akshay Yadav, son of the party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, is the SP candidate pitted against his uncle Shivpal Yadav.
Mulayam Singh, along with his son, reached Saifai, their ancestral village in Etawah, the day of filing nomination papers from Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat on Monday. Mainpuri is 45 km from Saifai.
Akhilesh Yadav said that a joint rally with the BSP would be held in Mainpuri on April 19 and claimed that the alliance would sweep the polls. “People are against the BJP and their anti-people policies. They are waiting for the elections and will show their verdict against the saffron party in a big way,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shivpal Yadav said on Monday that he was forced to stay away from the procession for filing of nomination papers by Mulayam Singh Yadav due to his rivalry with other party leaders’. “I am always with Netaji and wish him a huge success in these elections,” Shivpal said after meeting his elder brother for around 30 minutes.