E-Paper
BJP picks nervous, opting out of poll battle: Akhilesh
SP President Akhilesh Yadav claimed BJP candidates are hesitant to contest 2024 LS polls due to public anger. Several BJP candidates have opted out.
Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday claimed that the BJP candidates were developing cold feet over contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as they knew people were angry with the party.
He said this at a press conference at the party office in Lucknow.
Akhilesh was referring to Pawan Singh who was BJP candidate for Asansol seat in West Bengal, Gautam Gambhir BJP East Delhi MP, Jayant Sinha, BJP MP from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand and Nitinbhai Patel, former Gujarat deputy CM who have announced decision to sit out of LS polls. Pawan Singh, the Bhojpuri singer had refused to contest citing “some personal reasons”. After Akhilesh’s statement, the BJP’s Barabanki candidate for Lok Sabha Upendra Rawat announced that he wouldn’t contest the polls till he was proven not guilty in an obscene video case, which allegedly featured him.
Asked for comment on Rawat’s purported video, Akhilesh Yadav said: “I won’t comment as I am not aware of any such thing, nor have I seen the video”.
After the press conference, Akhilesh in a veiled post on social media said: “Who had thought that such days would come when...some candidates, even before ticket announcement would cite more important engagement as an excuse, or someone would cite sports more ‘Gambhir (serious)’ than politics, or cite environment issues to get out of the BJP or someone would announce retirement from politics after not getting ticket. Or someone after getting a ticket would reject it by announcing on social media.”
Akhilesh, ended the post, saying: “The BJP was never so weak...Now even the BJP people are saying--nahin chaahiye BhaJaPa (Don’t want BJP)”.
On Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav’s attack on Samajwadi Party’s dynastic politics, he said: “The BJP should pledge that it will not give tickets for LS polls to any family members and will not seek votes from those who have families”.
On the recent paper leak of the police constable recruitment exam, Akhilesh said: “Just the question paper leakage has leaked about 2.25 lakh votes in each UP LS constituency.”
