A day before the announcement of a mahagathbandan (grand alliance) to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav launched his poll campaign on Friday by attending an e-chaupal with social media micro blogging site Twitter and raising a new slogan of ‘Hamara kaam bolta hai, BJP ka dhoka bolta hai’ (Our work speaks, BJP’s betrayal speaks).
In the e-chaupal, the SP president interacted with villagers and gave his views on various issues, including the need for a mahagathbandan and also about the alleged mining scam during his regime.
He said their (SP-BSP) mahagathbandan would get the math right in the upcoming Lok Sabha election and the BJP would face defeat.
Akhilesh Yadav is all set to contest the Lok Sabha election from Kannauj. At present, his wife Dimple Yadav represents Kannauj in the Lok Sabha. Akhilesh was elected to Lok Sabha from Kannauj seat three times — 1999, 2004 and 2009.
“The BJP has grown strong by allying with smaller parties. Now we are doing the same and are joining hands to make a formidable opposition,” he said, adding that everyone knew about the political misuse of the CBI and in the mining scam case also it cannot be denied.
“If the CBI wants to question me, let the election process be completed and they can do it thereafter,” he said, adding that Saturday would be a historic day when the mahagathbandan would be announced in Lucknow.
“People of the country have already witnessed that when SP and BSP joined hands, the BJP lost its stronghold parliamentary seats of Gorakhpur and Phulpur, represented by the chief minister and the deputy chief minister. In the Lok Sabha polls also, we will keep our flag high and win majority of seats (in UP),” he said in reply to a villager’s question.
Yadav said the BJP as well as the Congress were afraid of the new mahagathbandan in UP and both these political parties had already pressed their panic buttons.
Appealing to the people to beware of the misinformation campaign launched by the BJP in the country, the SP chief said the BJP had ditched the poor people of the country by giving false promises in the past and was again trying to do it. He also asked the people to leave caste and communal politics for a better development of society.
“We have gone for a new slogan ‘Hamara kaam bolta hai, BJP ka dhoka bolta hai’ and it will be our main slogan in the election to counter the misinformation campaign of the BJP,” he said.
The e-chaupal was held at Fakirpur village in Umarda block of Kannauj district on Friday and it was attended by Twitter global vice-president Colin Crowell and his team.
Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav and former minister of UP, Abhishek Mishra, were also present on the dais during the e-chaupal.
The Twitter officials also apprised the villagers how to register themselves on Twitter and to run it.
Akhilesh did not spare a word to hit out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and accused him of trying to create unethical ways to collect revenue.
“The BJP government is promoting consumption of liquor by saying that it will give more revenue to the government and on the plea of making cow sheds, the government has imposed 2 per cent cess on alcohol,” he said.
Akhilesh said when the BJP government came to power in 2017, it closed all the slaughterhouses as it thought all of them belonged to SP leaders. “The myth has now been busted and it has been established that most of the slaughterhouses belonged to BJP leaders,” he said.
The SP president also announced that if his party came to power in UP, the loans taken by youths under Kamdhenu scheme to open dairies by purchasing cows would be waived.
He also questioned the honest intention of BJP on cleaning Ganga. “PM (Narendra) Modi took the broom to clean the country and every citizen supported him. But now the situation has changed and there is filth everywhere but the PM is silent on this issue,” he said.
Earlier, chaupals were held at tea stalls and other places in villages where people discussed political issues. But in the era of IT revolution, now e-chaupals have taken their place as now people are more active in political discussion on social media
Meanwhile, Twitter India in a statement on Friday said that the chaupals would facilitate direct engagement sessions between the leader and citizens on Twitter, and on-ground.
The question and answer (Q&A) conversation with the leader will also be broadcast live on the platform from the leader’s handle. Questions using the hash tag #ChaupalOnTwitter will be sourced from Twitter users, leading up to the event.