‘We will do better than 2009 elections’
LUCKNOW: Out campaigning in the state and outside, these perhaps are the busiest two months of Akhilesh Yadav’s political life that began in 1999 Lok Sabha election. In a chat with Hindustan Times, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav reflects on Samajwadi Party and its prospects.
Excerpts. While the poll pundits predict a bleak scenario for the SP, you think otherwise? What gives you the confidence? Yes, pre-poll surveys, poll pundits and media have their own respective agenda. They omit many factors. Did any poll survey predict the kind of victory we attained in 2012? While I kept telling about my assessment that was close to the results, they all were on their own trip. This time too the number of our seats will see a rise. My confidence comes from my government’s work, party’s policies, philosophies and our spirit of doing what we say. We fulfilled our manifesto promises within two years. People had mocked at the promises we made and said the government won’t be able to fulfill them. But we did, that too in a very short time. We have distributed 15 lakh HP laptops, unemployment allowance, Kanya vidyadhan, aid to Muslim girls. We have built roads, bridges, railway overbridges, and projects like Cancer hospital, IT City, Metro et al are coming up. Development is going on across the state.
But public perception is otherwise? No, not public perception, it is the media perception and rivals perception which is otherwise. We are ahead in work but lag in publicity. Ghar-ghar mein image theek hai, akhbaar or TV mein nahin hai (In households our image in good, it is newspapers and television where we are sullied). How can 15 lakh households who got laptops, families whose girls got Kanya vidyadhan or Muslim families whose girls got aid, not have a good image of the government? How would a farmer who is getting free water, or seeds and fertilizers on time not have good image about us? Though we did not do all this for votes, but our schemes and programmes will turn into votes. We are contesting elections on our works, policies and philosophies and secularism, the rivals were fanning communal fire to bake votes out of it. Your take on Muzaffarnagar riots? It was not a riot and not meant to be a riot. It was a small clash between a Jat and a Muslim that the communal forces converted into riots for their own political interests. But, we handled it well. Post-riots, we did the best that we could to wipe away tears and heal scars. Never in the history of riots anywhere in the country did victims got such help. While the National Human Rights Commission and Supreme Court acknowledged this, people in Muzaffarnagar too have realized it. What about the first phase where Muzaffarnagar too is going to polls? We have recovered a lot. I held a series of rallies in the first phase constituencies, including Muzaffarnagar. The kind of support our rally got was phenomenal. I am confident that we would do far better than last time when we won only Bulandshahr among the first phase constituencies. This time we are in good fight in Noida (Gautam Buddh Nagar), Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Kairana and Bijnor. And, once we fair well in the region where we hardly had any presence, we would consolidate in the rest of the place. What is the most difficult thing for the party?
Being secular is the most difficult thing that we have embarked upon. And, we will continue on socialist and secular path. It is easy to be communal, but very difficult to be secular. Because when we take step for betterment of different section and communities, we are accused of doing appeasement.