Targeting his political opponents, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav predicted that the coming lok Sabha elections would witness a direct fight between his party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing an impressive 'Desh Bachao, Desh Banao' rally at Manbela grounds here, the SP chief was confident that a Third Front would form the Government at the Centre after the parliamentary election.
"The Third Front will get majority and the SP will be its biggest ally," Yadav said while addressing the 'Desh Bachao, Desh Banao' rally.The SP supremo said that there were 80 seats in UP and by winning 50 seats his party would emerge strongest as no other state had so many lok Sabha seats.
Without taking the name of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Yadav said a rival party was "repeatedly demanding dismissal of the SP Government in UP even when it was nowhere in the race in the coming parliamentary election.
"Remember this, the contest will be between SP and BJP," he said, and added: "If anyone can fight against communal forces, it is only the SP and it has done so even in the elections."Yadav said that Opposition parties were scared of the popularity of the SP and therefore they were attacking it."Several attacks are being made on us in different manner. They are scared. We do not care about the attacks. Our people know, and every time the people support us," he said.
The SP rally is being seen as a reply to BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi's rally held at the same venue on January 23. In that rally, Modi had said that Mulayam Singh Yadav would never be able to make UP a Gujarat. Taking on the challenge, Yadav had stated that he would never allow UP to become Gujarat.
Yadav Senior said the SP had formed the government in the state on the strength of youths."They struggled on the streets, took beating and formed the government. The lok Sabha polls are very important. Whether the government is in UP or Bihar, they cannot equate with Delhi, which is collector while the states are patwari," he said.
Yadav Sr said he did not want to make SP a party of elders."Youths, I leave it on you... think about it seriously. SP will be in your hands and you will run it. Help poor, fight against atrocities and for justice, present your life as a model. You have to move ahead with this ideology," he said.
Yadav Sr said Modi was misleading people by presenting a false development model of Gujarat and he would get a befitting reply in the election.The SP supremo also raised questions over expenditure on the rallies of Modi and alleged that crores of rupees were being spent.
In a bid to reach out to the people of eastern UP, Yadav said that only SP thought about progress of the region."Special facilities should be given to the region. Only the SP has made provision for Poorvanchal fund, because we know that this region is backward," he said, adding that the region was the most poor as the previous governments did not pay any attention to it.
Training his guns at the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre, he said it was responsible for rising prices because of its faulty policies. To justify his charge, the SP supremo said the Central Government was importing wheat and sugar when both were produced in abundance in the country.
Yadav Sr said the UP Government had set an example before the country by waiving Rs 1650 crore loans of farmers, banning auction of agricultural land and providing free medical treatment to poor people suffering from serious ailments."Is any other government in the country doing soIJ"he asked.
Yadav Sr expressed the hope that the SP Government would fulfil within three years all the promises made by the party in its election manifesto. He asked the party leaders to go among people with confidence and ensure SP's victory by leaving behind personal differences.
Addressing the rally, SP state president and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that UP was leading the country in terms of development. The Chief Minister unveiled and laid the foundation stones of 40 development projects.He said that during the past two years, the SP Government had returned people's money to people through development and welfare schemes. "Various people and parties had chosen Gorakhpur to conduct historical rallies but today, the masses here have shown what a historical rally means," Yadav Junior said.