Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will kickstart his campaign for 2019 lok Sabha polls from September 16 by embarking upon a cycle yatra from Kannauj and culminating 50 km down the Agra-lucknow Expressway near Unnao. Akhilesh has plans to contest the lok Sabha poll from Kannauj.
Keen to score a political point, Akhilesh has chosen the family of two-year-old khajanchi, who was born outside an ATM shortly after the Centre’s demonetisation move on November 8, 2016, to flag off its 40-km long ‘Haq aur Samman Yatra’.
The cycle yatra will aim to highlight the failures of the ruling BJP at the Centre and UP and showcase the SP’s development vision. “We have chosen the family of little khajanchi, and his family will flag off our yatra. It’s an attempt to show the failed demonetisation move which severely affected traders and our economy,” Akhilesh said.
The culmination of the yatra will be marked by the family of another child, also named Akhilesh, who was born on the Expressway near Khabauli village in December 2017.
Residents of Hayatnagar Bhaura village in Bangarmau area of Unnao district, Shivpal Yadav and his wife Meera had left for hospital as soon as she developed labour pain. Just when their car reached the airstrip on the expressway, Meera gave birth to her first child, whom they named Akhilesh.
“This yatra will just be a start. It is named ‘Haq and Samman Yatra’ so that people realise they have to snatch their rights and get due honour. It will continue till lok Sabha poll. People of the state are fed up with the present regime as nothing is happening on the ground. We ‘samajwadis’ (socialists) will continue to raise the voice of the common man and 2019 will be crucial. People have made up their mind against the BJP and will show their strength in the lok Sabha poll,” Akhilesh said.