Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said that his party would launch a door-to-door campaign to register domestic consumers for up to 300 units of free electricity in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
Yadav said in a press conference here on Tuesday that the new scheme that would be implemented if the SP was voted to power in the upcoming assembly election would be launched on Wednesday.
Yadav had announced the free power scheme on January 1.
The SP chief said that 300 units of free electricity to domestic consumers and free power for irrigation to farmers would be the “number one promise” in the SP manifesto that would soon be formally released.
"While filling up forms to avail the scheme, the applicants should fill in the name exactly as mentioned in their power bill, or Aadhaar card and ration card,” Yadav explained.
The SP cadre would get the forms filled in a door-to-door campaign from Wednesday onwards, he said.
Speaking on SP's manifesto for the upcoming election, Akhilesh said the party's manifesto had taken into consideration the suggestions of the general public, various communities such as that of doctors, traders and farmers.
Among other poll promises, the Samajwadi Party has announced Rs 25 lakh to the families of farmers who died in the farmers’ agitation, minimum support price on all crops, interest-free loans, insurance and pension to farmers, Rs 5 lakh to cyclists who die in road accidents and Rs 5 lakh to those who die in bull attack.
Akhilesh Yadav defended the party’s leader and candidate from Kairana in Shamli district Nahid Hasan, presently in jail after being booked by the police under UP Gangster Act. He said Nahid Hasan had been framed on fake charges and a large number of SP leaders had been arrested and sent to jail on trumped up charges by the Yogi Adityanath government. He said the district police had booked Nahid Hasan, his mother and 38 others under the Gangster Act in February 2021.
Abdullah Azam, son of the SP MP Mohammad Azam Khan was also present in the press conference. Azam Khan has been in jail since the last two years and Abdullah Azam was released from jail last week.
Abdullah Azam is likely to contest the assembly election from Rampur assembly seat. Abdullah was first elected to assembly in 2017 from Swar Tanda constituency in Rampur district. His election was quashed by the Allahabad High Court in 2018 and he was disqualified from the membership of the UP Assembly on grounds of fake birth certificate. He was later arrested on this charge and was in jail for nearly two years.