Akhilesh dares Yogi to match progress made by his govt
Despite the poll debacle that the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance suffered in the UP assembly elections, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said friendship with the Congress would continue but refused to disclose the party’s strategy for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“I would not like to reveal the strategy at this stage. But yes, the BJP will have a tough time if all opposition parties put up a united front,” said Akhilesh while speaking at a function organized by a news channel. He stood by his earlier stand wherein he had said that, if required, the party would not hesitate to join hands with all opposition parties, including the BSP, to keep BJP away from power. “It is too early though to comment and predict what the political scenario would be for 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” he said.
The BJP, he said, had managed to win the elections by misleading the people with false promises and polarizing them on communal lines. “People are still awaiting those promised 15 lakhs in their bank accounts. Similarly, farmers too are wondering what happened to the loan waiver assured to them,” he said. On BJP government putting his ambitious projects under scanner, Akhilesh said he welcomed the probe. “The same set of officials, who are at the helm now, executed these projects. Truth will prevail ultimately, let them conduct an inquiry into expressway and Gomti River Front,” he said.
The former CM dared the Yogi Adityanath government to better his track record, be it in strengthening the power sector, infrastructure or emergency response services in the State. “I repeat UP’s development does not depend on the PM but on the CM. The state needs better infrastructure. It needs roads, education and health. But unfortunately, the Yogi government’s priorities are on scrapping schemes started during the SP regime,” he said.
Yadav said he was more relaxed now and was focusing on party’s ongoing membership drive. When asked whether it was the feud in the family that led to the party’s debacle, the former CM wondered why the media was so obsessed with the differences in the Yadav family.
Without taking any names, he said, some people in the party did not want SP to come back to power and they have succeeded in it. Asked about Shivpal Yadav’s plan to float a new party, Yadav said how someone can prevent a person wanting to form his own outfit. To a question that he had not handed over the reins of the party to his father after elections, he said organizational elections in the party were due by September 30 and party workers would decide then.