Lucknow: Samajwadi Part Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday came out hard against the BJP accusing the party of being nervous of the INDIA bloc and breaking other parties. Yadav has vowed action against Rebel MLAs who cross voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday.
"Action will be taken against them as per the rules. They won by defeating BJP and now what answer will they give to those voters?... They used to give us information about BJP-RSS. We are sad that who will give us this information now...PDA family is expanding and because of this BJP is nervous and is breaking other parties. BJP should form a new faction - BJP Sidhantheen" Akhilesh Yadav said.
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In the Rajya Sabha elections the BJP won 8 of the 10 seats that went to the polls while the SP won two seats. The contest was effected after the BJP put up an eighth candidate in former RS MP Sanjay Seth who finally emerged victorious after 7 SP MLAs cross voted.
Meanwhile, the SP received a boost when Bahujan Samaj Party leader and former MLA from Mubarakpur constituency Shah Alam, alias Guddu Jamali, switched sides ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of party president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Wednesday.
Welcoming Jamali in the party Yadav said the 'PDA' family is expanding.
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Earlier, Yadav explained that 'PDA' is the name of the unity born out of shared consciousness and feeling against the exploitation and oppression of those who are "pichre" (meaning backward), Dalit and "alpashankhak" (meaning minority).
In a joint press conference with Jamali, Akhilesh Yadav said they would be working together to defeat the BJP in the upcoming election.
"Today I congratulate Shah Alam Guddu and his supporters...Like 'Samudra Manthan', this time there will be 'Samvidhan Manthan' in the elections and on one side there will be people who want to safeguard the constitution, and on the other side there were people who want to destroy the constitution. We are happy that our PDA family is expanding and we will work together to defeat the BJP in 2024 (Lok Sabha elections)"
The SP is set to contest 63 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls while its ally the Congress will contest 17 seats.
