Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worked hard to destroy the brotherhood of India and western U.P. in particular. Mr. Yadav, addressing an election rally in Muzaffarnagar, asked voters to not fall into the trap of empty rhetoric but rather to vote on fundamental issues such as jobs and social security. He added that in its decade long rule the saffron party has committed grave injustices against each and every section of the population.
“Our country is of Ganga-Jamuni culture, these people of the BJP are working to destroy the brotherhood of India and western U.P. Each of their decisions is against the public. The youth who used to prepare for the army by staying in their villages, towns, and cities, these people [BJP government] in a single day changed the law that in the future there will be no permanent jobs and made the army service a four-year contract,” Mr. Yadav said.
In Muzaffarnagar, the SP candidate Harendra Malik is locked in a three-way battle with Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan of the BJP and Dara Singh Prajapati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The SP president ridiculed the BJP’s slogan of “400 paar” or “beyond 400”.
“This government, which is giving the slogan of going beyond 400 seats, does not know that the slogan of ‘400 haar’ [defeat on 400] is being raised across Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, Meerut, Bijnor, Nagina, Saharanpur, et al. Think if the farmers and youth stand against the government, will that government be defeated or not. This time the wind from the west will sweep away the BJP,” the SP president added, hinting at the start of elections from the western part of U.P.
The former U.P. CM and current leader of Opposition alleged that one lakh farmers committed suicide under the BJP dispensation, adding that the government did nothing for the deceased. “Ever since the BJP government came to power in the country, one lakh farmers have committed suicide. This government has not helped the farmers who committed suicide. They have not helped our farmers who fought against the three black laws and were martyred,” he said, accusing the BJP of working for corporate interests at the expense of poor and marginalised farming communities.
“This government is not of the farmers; this government is of big industrialists. If it was a government of poor farmers, it would have waived the loans of our farmers as well. As soon as the INDIA alliance government is formed, the farmers’ loans will be waived,” he claimed.
