Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that he had no memories of the electoral setback suffered by his party in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and he was confident that his party-led alliance would form the government in the state after March 10.
"The Samajwadi Party-led alliance had set a target of winning 400 seats in the UP assembly and we are confident that we will win 300 seats and form the next government in Uttar Pradesh. The SP will reveal the priorities of the new government after counting of votes is completed on March 10," the SP chief said in Lucknow on Monday.
Akhilesh Yadav further said, "UP has never witnessed such a high pitch election campaign in which the top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party vied with each other in dishing out lies to mislead the voters. The electorate saw through their game and stood their ground and voted on fundamental issues affecting their daily lives."
"The BJP deployed a battery of leaders from across the country for campaigning in UP, yet the SP-led alliance successfully contested the elections in all 403 assembly constituencies with hard work of the party cadre. We contested the election with people's support and the common masses fought the poll for the SP-led alliance,” he said.
Referring to the critical remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah linking his party's poll symbol cycle with terrorism, the SP chief said, "The prime minister linked the cycle with terrorism, but realised his folly as when the blast took place in Ahmedabad, Modi was the chief minister and Amit Shan was the home minister of Gujarat. Modi said this only in one meeting and did not repeat the accusation.’’
Akhilesh further said, "The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the economy and businesses of millions of small traders were destroyed by its protracted spell. A large number of youths are jobless and over 700 farmers died during the protest against the three contentious farms laws but the government is yet to address the issues faced by the youth, traders and farmers.’’
Accusing the BJP of failing to honour the promises it made to the people in 2017, the SP chief said, "They took people up the garden path, claiming to set up defence manufacturing corridor and attract investments of over Rs 45 lakh crore and manufacture missiles. But in reality, they failed to manufacture even a match stick. The BJP leaders should have explained to the people about the causes of the hike in prices of petrol, diesel and fertilisers."