Akhilesh questions assurances on laptops, counters dynastic jibe
SP chief embarks on fifth leg of his Samajwadi Vijay Rath Yatra in Bundelkhand region
KANPUR : Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday embarked on the fifth leg of his Samajwadi Vijay Rath Yatra in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, where he asked people if they wanted a Yogi sarkar (Yogi government) or a Yogya sarkar (able government).
“Those who cannot operate a laptop cannot give it to the young people either,” he said, apparently taking pot shots at chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Akhilesh Yadav was addressing a rally at Banda’s Government Inter College in Uttar Pradesh.
“You are just getting assurances for the last four years and a half from the government for laptops. Now, when elections are approaching, they are promising laptops and tablets. He will not give them,” the former chief minister said.
He also countered the dynastic jibe being thrown at him from time to time. Yadav alleged this government did not help people during the Covid lockdown and left them to fend for themselves.
“We have families and know the pain of families. Those who do not have families, how can they relate to the pain of those with families?” he said.
Trying to reach out to BEd, TET (Teachers’ Eligibility Test) and Shiksha Mitra aspirants, Akhilesh Yadav claimed the BJP government did nothing for them in more than four years. The government’s advertisements were all a lie, he claimed.
They had promised that people wearing slippers would be able to undertake air travel, but the fact is farmers are not getting fertilizers on the ground, the Samajwadi Party chief alleged.
“The farmers are spending days in the field to save their crops from stray cattle,” he further said, assuring the farmers that they would be given free irrigation if the SP was voted to power.
He said the double engine government had failed in Bundelkhand where nothing was done since 2017.
The people here supported the BJP in the general elections in 2014 and 2019 and the assembly elections of 2017, he said. All that happened, he pointed out, in the name of development was a change in the name of projects that the SP government had initiated for Bundelkhand.
About 32 lakh people were below the poverty line in Bundelkhand, he said, adding this government has run bulldozers on the people who, in turn, will “bulldoze” the BJP government in this election.
The region where the BJP has 19 assembly seats and four Lok Sabha seats has seen intense political activity in the past fortnight.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed public meetings in Mahoba and Jhansi on November 19 and chief minister Yogi Adityanath made three visits. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has already visited the region twice for interaction with women in Chitrakoot and a big rally in Mahoba. Akhilesh Yadav would remain in Bundelkhand for three days in a bid to help his party regain the ground it lost in the region in 2017.
In response to Akhilesh Yadav’s remarks, UP BJP secretary Chandramohan said, “A political party which has never looked beyond its family and caste, and whose political chief openly talks about love for Jinnah, can hardly be deemed trustworthy. Naturally, fearing rejection, the SP leadership appears to have lost the plot altogether. The 2022 UP polls would establish this.”