Akhilesh holds road show in Gorakhpur, targets Yogi
LUCKNOW : Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav took out a Vijay Rath Yatra (road show) through chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s home turf Gorakhpur on Sunday evening.
The road show coincided with the fifth phase of polling in 12 other districts of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday . Yogi Adityanath is contesting his first assembly election from the Gorakhpur urban seat, for which voting will take place in the sixth phase of the UP assembly polls on March 3.
Before the Vijay Yatra, which attracted visibly large crowds, Akhilesh also addressed a public rally in the Chillupar assembly constituency of Gorakhpur. Addressing the Chillupar rally to seek votes for SP candidate Vinay Shankar Tiwari, Yadav said, “Today, voting is being held for the fifth phase and everyone has decided to send ‘Babaji’ back to his math.”
He was apparently referring to Yogi Adityanath, a five-time former MP from Gorakhpur, who also heads the Gorakhnath Math as its mahant (chief priest).
At the roadshow, Akhilesh said: “The scale of the crowd and the enthusiasm signals a big change. Never before, the state saw such public anger against a state government. Those who were taking about “garmi nikal dengey” have now run out of steam (unki bhaanp nikal gayi). Now, the BJP leaders and workers are taking off BJP flags.”
Continuing to attack Yogi, Akhilesh Yadav said from atop his Vijay Yatra campaign bus: “The government did not do recruitment, did no work. The recruitment process for inducting constables that was initiated by the SP government hasn’t been acted upon. But now all that is going to end soon; 69,000 teachers will be recruited. Eleven lakh (1.1 million) vacant government posts will be filled.”
Akhilesh also addressed a rally for former BJP minister Swami Prasad Prasad Maurya, who is the SP candidate from Fazilnagar (Kushinagar).
Calling Swami Prasad Maurya a big leader, the SP chief asked people to make him win.
“Earlier, in the Vidhan Sabha, Maurya ji and I used to sit across each other, now we will sit side-by-side,” he said.
For his part, Swami Prasad Maurya said: “Akhilesh Yadav will be the next chief minister. There is a storm of change sweeping the state and the BJP is set to be wiped out.”
Yadav said strength of farmers forced the BJP government to withdraw the “black” farm laws.
Mentioning sit-ups being done by a BJP candidate in Sonbhadra, the SP leader said, “Farmers will not forgive them (BJP) this time for their deeds.”
Apart from the Vijay Yatra in Gorakhpur, Akhilesh addressed several public meeting in Deoria, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, and Maharajganj.