Will support any joint oppn nominee for Prez poll, says Akhilesh
Samajwadi Party (SP) national president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said that his party will support any bid to put up a joint candidate by the opposition in the presidential election in July.
He was replying to a question during a programme hosted by a news channel at a five star hotel here. When asked if he had talked to Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi in this regard, he said he had but refused to reveal the content of the conversation.
On the Congress saying “no” to the alliance with the SP in the municipal polls, he said that “might be a part of our political strategy as well”. “As for the alliance, it was between two youths (Rahul Gandhi and himself) and that alliance was intact and will continue to be so for a long time to come,” he stressed.
Asked to comment on a new outfit floated by Shiv Pal Yadav, he tersely said he welcomed any party with a secular ideology avoiding to making any direct comment. On the possibility of the SP and the BSP joining hands in 2019 in UP, Akhilesh said they could, but there were certain forces which, he alleged, would never let this happen.
“Everybody knows who was responsible for the estrangement of the SP and the BSP, “he accused the BJP without naming it. He said regional parties were must in a democracy to give vent to local aspirations of the masses. Akhilesh said he would allow some time to the Yogi Adityanath government before commenting on its work. “So far, they are running only our schemes as they are yet to come up with the new budget so there is no point in being critical,” he said. “But the law and order situation really faces serious questions in the state,” he alleged.
‘PRADHAN MANTRI JI YE MERA BETA HAI’
An anchor asked Akhilesh Yadav to honestly say as to what Mulayam Singh Yadav had whispered into PrIme Minister Narendra Modi’s ears during the swearing-in ceremony of Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on March 19. “When the anchor persisted, Akhilesh said he (anchor) would not believe if he spoke the truth.
“Netaji ne kaha tha Pradhan mantra ji ye mera beta hai, bachke rehana,” he revealed’ with a smile amidst laughers in the hall. Earlier in the day, Akhilesh asked the party cadres to start preparing for 2019 Lok Sabha and 2022 assembly polls in the state.
He was speaking at a meeting of the Samajwadi Cultural Cell on Friday afternoon.
He told the delegates at the meeting that despite immense development works by the SP government, development couldn’t become poll issue. “