After promise of 300 units of free electricity, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has assured to launch `Samajwadi thali’ costing only Rs 10 to the people and Samajwadi pension if his party formed the next government in Uttar Pradesh.
Akhilesh Yadav said `Samajwadi thali’ would contain nutritious food and promised to start Samajwadi canteen, Samajwadi kirana stores and restore the old pension besides reopening the closed cycle factory in Ghaziabad.
Addressing a joint press conference with his ally Jayant Chaudhary of Rashtriya Lok Dal in Ghaziabad on Saturday, Akhilesh Yadav said the alliance was banking on the politics of unity, harmony and cohesion while the Bharatiya Janata Party was pursuing the politics of division and negativity.
“The BJP claims that the government has provided free food grain to 80 crore people during the pandemic period but they hide the crucial fact that the same number of people lost their jobs,” the SP chief said.
Predicting victory for the SP-RLD alliance, the SP chief said, “The next big surprise will not come from Uttar Pradesh but from Gujarat. The people of UP have made up their mind to dislodge the BJP from power in UP and Gujarat.”
Assembly elections are due in Gujarat later this year and the BJP is in power in the western state for over two decades.
Flaunting the red colour small grain bag (Ann potli), Akhilesh Yadav the people should show the red colour LPG cylinder to the BJP leaders visiting their home for door to door campaign. He said the cost of the cooking gas cylinder was beyond the reach of the common people.
Targeting the BJP on three farm laws, the SP chief said, “The BJP failed to tell the people as to why the three laws were brought and why they were repealed.”
Akhilesh Yadav asked farmers to be wary of the BJP, saying the ruling party's government had withdrawn its controversial farm laws only for the sake of votes. He also assured the farmers that if the SP-RLD alliance formed the government in Uttar Pradesh, it would not allow the implementation of any such anti-farmer law in the state.
The SP chief said this time the BJP would face a "political exodus".
"Have you not seen what type of exodus our Baba CM (Yogi Adityanath) had to make. He was seeking ticket from Ayodhya, Mathura or Prayagraj. The BJP sent him back home," he said referring the Yogi Adityanath’s candidature from Gorakhpur Urban, the area he had represented in Parliament earlier.
Akhilesh reiterated that Chaudhary Charan Singh should be awarded Bharat Ratna.
"Jayant Chaudharyji and I will remove the politics of negativity and we will fight to save our Ganga-Jamuni ‘tehzeeb’ (culture) and brotherhood," Yadav said.
Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary said his party's alliance with the SP was "solid" and aimed at furthering the cause of farmers.
Ahead of the assembly polls, the BJP is reaching out to the Jats in Western Uttar Pradesh, from where members of the community had taken part in the year-long stir against three farm laws at the Delhi's border points.