Hitting out at the BJP, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s so-called surgical strike against black money has proved to be counter productive as people standing in long queues are eagerly waiting for the elections to teach him a lesson.
“In villages, people term those youths who tried to cheat them as ‘smartgiri’. Now this term suits Modi. In democracy, people are supreme and elections prove who is smart and who is dumb,” he said.
Talking to reporters after inaugurating several developmental projects of Noida and Greater Noida from lucknow on Wednesday, Yadav said that after a self-goal by the BJP, the field is wide open for Samajwadi Party and the party will make full use of the opportunity.
“The situation in rural areas due to demonetisation is very bad. People are facing severe hardships due to the paucity of currency. labourers working in the cities, have started returning to their villages. They are waiting for the elections to teach the BJP a lesson,” the CM said.
When asked about frequent change in party candidates, Yadav said that the Samajwadi Party can change candidates till election dates are announced. “You all know how many times the candidates were changed in Sultanpur in the 2012 Assembly polls. This will happen and there is nothing unusual,” Yadav said.
The CM, however, refused to comment on the SP fielding don-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed from Kanpur Cantonment and Amar Singh being made member of the Central Parliamentary Board and a star campaigner in the Assembly polls. “Candidates were being selected on merit of winnability and if anyone wants to campaign for the SP, he is welcome,” he quipped.
Yadav said that the SP is going to get a majority in the elections but if the party goes for any pre-poll alliance then the joint tally would breach the 300 mark.
“The alliance with the Congress will be decided by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Even I have spoken to the Congress people a couple of times (on this issue),” he said.
To a query as who the main opposition is for the SP, the CM said that BSP is not even in contest in most seats. “Mayawati knows that and hence she is trying to confuse people by making wild allegations against the SP like transferring vote to the BJP. Everyone knows how the BSP vote was shifted to the BJP in the last lok Sabha polls while before that BJP had shifted its votes to the BSP in a bypoll,” the CM said.
Yadav also questioned the BSP about its bhai-chara committees and claimed that most leaders of these committees have now joined the BJP.
Akhilesh again said that elephants, erected by the BSP, had not moved an inch and charged that the company which constructed Yamuna Expressway was facing major loss even after getting huge land package from the BSP regime. “But the SP government completed the lucknow- Agra Expressway without any gift of land package to any company and now it is being extended up to Ballia,” he said.