Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said the Bharatiya Janata Party might taste defeat in all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 general election.
"BJP is baar ho sakta hai saari 80 seats haar jaaye (BJP might taste defeat in all 80 seats), The party that claimed to rule for decades -- its leader said that it will be there for (the next) 50 years -- is now counting its days. Its national president should visit two medical colleges in the state and he will understand how many seats they are going to win," the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said.
“The BJP’s days in the state are numbered. I want to say today, when their state executive is sitting, that only 398 days are left. Be it poor or anyone else, no one can expect justice today. The rights that democracy and the Constitution have given us, those rights are also being snatched away. The BJP is deliberately taking decisions that benefit a handful of industrialists. It is promoting its men in all institutions,” he said.
Yadav also asked the BJP, which is holding its state executive meet here, to pass a resolution to provide Rs 1 crore and a government job to the families of custodial death victims.
"The BJP practices discrimination. Will it pass a resolution to provide Rs 1 crore financial help and a government job to the family of Balwant Singh? It should pass a resolution to provide Rs 1 crore financial assistance and a government job in custodial death cases to the families concerned," Yadav said.
A young businessman died in police custody in Kanpur on the intervening night of December 12 and 13. His post-mortem report revealed that he had about 24 ante-mortem injuries, including on the chest, face, thighs, legs, hands and soles.
Yadav also hit out at the Yogi Adityanath government over investments in the state. "They were claiming to bring in investments from London and New York. Now, they are bringing investment from districts. Who are they fooling? They are visiting (other) states, which are already running their own (investment) programmes, for investments. They are just fooling people," Yadav said.
Akhilesh Yadav lauded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for initiating the caste census, saying that the British too had thought in 1931 about the move, which alone could ensure the development of all castes.
Talking to reporters at Janeshwar Mishra Park, named after his mentor and veteran socialist leader and former MP, Akhilesh Yadav said, “The caste census is not a demand of today. The British had thought that a caste census should be done in 1931. The rights of the Constitution can be given to different castes and communities only when their count is known. I appreciate and congratulate Bihar chief minister for this,” he said, after paying his tributes to Janeshwar Mishra.
Akhilesh Yadav said that his party had been demanding such a census for long, and that he too had during his election rallies promised to initiate it within three months of formation of government.
About his recent visit to Telangana, Yadav said he had gone there at the invitation of Telangana chief minister, who had invited several other chief ministers too.
On Janeshwar Mishra, Yadav said, “We are remembering Janeshwar Mishraji today. He and ‘Netaji’ (Mulayam Singh Yadav) took the socialist movement forward. Today we all take a resolution that we will take this movement even further.”