Samajwadi Party, in a bid to take on the Hindutva agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, will launch a booth-wise campaign against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the mother organisation of the ruling party. The SP has prepared a booklet about the ideological profile of the RSS, projecting the saffron organisation as divisive and working for the upper castes. The booklet will be distributed across the state.
Along with the campaign against the RSS, the SP intends to intensify the campaign for social justice by pursuing its demand for caste-based census. The SP strategists are confident that the twin agenda of attack on the ideology of the RSS and caste-based census can counter the Hindutva identity politics of the BJP. The SP has already organised a two-day cadre training camp at Naimisharanya, an important pilgrimage centre in Sitapur district.
Sources in the SP said, “The party has worked out the strategy after due deliberation where it has been decided to expose the Hindutva agenda of the RSS-BJP and also explain the significance of social justice and caste-based census, which will protect the larger interests of the Other Backward Classes.”
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has already given a new slogan “80 Harao, BJP Hatao” (defeat 80, remove BJP), implying that if the saffron party has to be removed in 2024, it has to be defeated in all Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
On Monday, Akhilesh Yadav targeted the Yogi Adityanath government, saying the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh is turning from bad to worse.
“Instead of providing security and facilities to traders, there is freedom for their extortion and ransom," he said. The SP chief also alleged that corruption flourished under the BJP rule in Uttar Pradesh.
“Why is the chief minister not seeing what is happening right under his nose? Is there any involvement at a higher level? Why is the chief minister not remembering the claim of zero tolerance towards crime and corruption?” he asked.
Reacting to Akhilesh Yadav’s statement that the SP would win all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general elections, BJP MP Harnath Singh Yadav said, “Leave alone the claims of winning 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, just win only one Lok Sabha seat, Varanasi. If your party does this, I will retire from politics and will also resign from the Rajya Sabha membership.”
Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats. The SP had only won five in 2019 and lost two of them -- Rampur and Azamgarh -- to the BJP in the by-elections.