Questioning the claims of BJP of becoming the largest political party in the Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that the Samajwadi Party was already the biggest party as all the beneficiaries of the Government schemes were “automatically member of the party”. “There are crore of people who stand benefited by the schemes Government had launched in last three years. Over 40 lakh families are beneficiary of Samajwadi Pension scheme and then there are beneficiary of other schemes like Kanya Vidya Dhan and laptop distribution. If all of them are added together the number of SP members would be much more than BJP,” Yadav told reporters here on Tuesday. He said that recent by-election results are indicator of BJP’s popularity.
“The party which claims of having over 1 crore members in UP finishes third in Pharenda poll show how credible party’s claim is,” Chief Minister said. He however showed his annoyance over lack of interest shown by SP workers in propagating party’s schemes. “It is unfortunate that the party workers have failed to make people aware about the schemes launched by our government. People are enjoying the benefits of our schemes, but they are not aware that it is Samajwadi Party Government that is behind these schemes,” he said.
To buttress his point he said that recently during a function at the CM residence when he asked a beneficiary whether she knew PWD Minister Shivpal Yadav or him she replied in negative besides she also did not know which party was instrumental in launching these schemes. “Similarly during my Bundelkhand visit when I was distributing cheques to the farmers I enquired from them and they did not know that UP government was giving these cheques,” Yadav said.
“People at the ground level are ignorant about party’s acheievements. This is the failure of our party workers. This is their responsibility to ensure that our government’s achievements should be publicized. We are left with just two years and our workers should use this time apprising people of the policies and achievements of the Government,” he said. Answering a question about UP Government’s initiative in extending help to farmers who lost crop in recent rains Chief Minister said that over 1,400 crore has been distributed among farmers but the government has not received help from the centre. He said that against the demand of Rs 6,700 crore from the Centre has just sent Rs 253 crore so far.