Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav today said seat-sharing between INDIA constituent parties in Uttar Pradesh “will be finalised very soon.” His remark comes in the wake of seat-sharing talks between SP and Congress leaders remaining inconclusive.
Replying to questions at the daylong India TV Samvaad conclave here today, Akhilesh Yadav said he was hopeful of seat sharing in UP being finalised soon. “We have hardly 100 days left for the elections. We do not have much time. We have to go to ground-level work immediately. I will go to the I.N.D.I.A meeting only occurs when seat sharing in UP is worked out….People of UP who elect 80 MPs hold the key to who will become the Prime Minister.”
On Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Akhilesh Yadav said, “every party has the right to take out yatras. We also take out yatras. There is nothing wrong with that. But Congress leaders do not invite us to their programs.”
On BSP chief Mayawati’s decision to go alone in the elections, Yadav said, “Every party has the right to decide who to ally with.” He pointed out that the BSP won 10 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections after forging an alliance and projecting Mayawati as the PM candidate, but in the assembly elections, they won only one seat, and that too because the candidate was strong. He rejected the theory put forth by analysts that the BSP does not gain seats in alliances because BSP votes get transferred to other parties, but the reverse is not the case.
Akhilesh Yadav promised that if the opposition INDIA alliance comes to power, the ‘Agniveer’ scheme in the armed forces will be discontinued and the Old Pension Scheme for government employees will be implemented. He demanded that the Center should officially explain why the Rezang La war memorial of 1962 was dismantled and shifted to another place in Ladakh because it fell in the buffer zone.
On why Mamata Banerjee proposed the name of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to be the convenor of the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav explained, “One leader at the INDIA meet wanted some out-of-the-box ideas, to which the proposal to make Kharge the convenor was mooted. That’s it.”
Akhilesh Yadav said, “BJP would not have won a second term in the 2022 UP assembly elections if leaders from Delhi had not come to UP for campaigning. Had it been left to UP leaders, the voters of UP would have defeated the BJP.” Asked which leaders from Delhi he was referring to, Yadav said, “Scores of planes and helicopters carrying leaders from Delhi and other states were brought to UP for campaigning. Among them was a leader from MP (Shivraj Singh Chouhan), who has now been denied the CM post.”
The SP chief made it clear that his party will go to the elections this time to garner support in the name of PDA (Pichchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak—Backward, SC and Minorities). “For us, PDA is like God. The BJP had been getting more than 50 per cent votes in several constituencies…The BJP has forced us to change our strategy and opt for PDA. An alliance is necessary to defeat the BJP. It is a big challenge. If the BJP retains power again this year, it will snatch away the voting rights of people and change the Constitution. They have all the resources and CBI and ED with them. The BJP is now trying to hide behind God (Lord Ram), fearing defeat. If youths and farmers join hands, the BJP will face trouble in the elections.”
On the Ram temple consecration event, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Ram temple is being built because of a court verdict, but the politicisation of the event is unjustified… Will Lord Ram stay in Ayodhya only on January 22? Will he vanish after that? I will visit the temple only when Lord Ram invites me. I will go there as an ordinary devotee. I want to ask why Shankaracharyas were not invited to the event. ..I am more religious than the BJP leaders. The temple erected in the UP chief minister’s residence was done during my tenure. It was I who brought Parijaat and other religiously important trees to the official residence.”
To watch full interview with Akhilesh Yadav, please click the following Twitter link….