BJP’s only target is 2019 LS polls, not development: SP

DEHRADUN: The Samajwadi Party Saturday launched a membership drive to strengthen its roots in Uttarakhand.

The nearly month-long drive will conclude on May 15, party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said in Dehradun. The party also named Kuldeep Rawat as new state president.

Speaking to media, Chaudhary launched a scathing attack on the BJP and said the policies adopted by the saffron party was dangerous for democracy as its sole target is 2019 Lok Sabha elections and not development of the country.

“The way the BJP-led central government is working, it is dangerous for the democracy. The target is 2019 elections and not development of the country. The government does not have any policy for farmers and they are not doing value-based politics,” Chaudhary said.

BJP swept the assembly elections both in the Uttarakhand and in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

Prior to this, Uttarakhand was ruled by the Congress ,while the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh had the Samajwadi Party government.

Just like former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who demanded that election commission should answer on reported cases of EVM (electronic voting machines) tampering, chaudhary too hinted at a conspiracy behind BJP winning the state polls this year.

“Many voters are reaching to Akhilesh Yadav claiming that they voted for him. They do question how BJP won assembly election? In Uttarakhand as well, what did BJP do in its last ruling period? The issues of unemployment and migration still remain,” he said.

The Samajwadi Party leader claimed that the “freedom of people has been robbed” and the country was facing “undeclared emergency where rights of people have been snatched”.

He also questioned how Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fount of BJP, can talk of nationalism when it never participated in the country’s freedom movement.

The Samajwadi Party has failed to create much impact in the hill state. The Maywati-led party touched a high in the 2002 assembly election bagging 6.79% of the total votes polls.

It maintained the same percentage in 2007.

However, since then SP has seen its vote percentage dropping to 5.88% 2012 in 2014 to less than 1% in this year’s state polls.