Country will see big change after 2024 LS polls: Akhilesh Yadav

SP President Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the "bicycle people" will win the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh and that the PDA will defeat the NDA.

Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday claimed that “bicycle people” will win the 2024 Lok Sabha polls (in Uttar Pradesh) and that “the Pichhde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak’ (PDA) will defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)”.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and other party leaders at the concluding ceremony of Samajwadi PDA Yatra at Saifai village in U.P.’s Etawah on November 21. (Sourced)

Bicycle is the SP’s election symbol. Akhilesh made the statement at the concluding ceremony of the ‘Samajwadi PDA Yatra’ in his ancestral Saifai village in Etawah district. The cycle yatra was completed in 102 days after being launched on August 9 this year from Prayagraj. The yatra concluded at the samadhi of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on the eve of his birth anniversary.

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It was a combined ceremony of the two-phased yatra. The first phase was the foot march from August 9, 2022 to January 6, 2023. The second phase was a cycle yatra from August 9, 2023 to November 21, 2023. “Together, both yatras covered 8,500 km and passed through 40 U.P. districts, 202 assemblies and 42 Lok Sabha constituencies and both the yatras took a total of 208 days,” said Abhishek Yadav, national president, Samajwadi Lohia Vahani. He organised and led both the yatras.

“The direction that the country’s politics has taken will now see socialists in the key role,” Akhilesh said.Hundreds of SP cyclists, party’s national general secretary Shivpal Yadav, Mainpuri SP MP Dimple Yadav, former Budaun SP MP Dharmendra Yadav were prominent among those present on the occasion.

“The country will witness a big change after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the PDA (Pichada, Dalit, Alpsankhya, that is, backward, Dalit, and minorities specially Muslim) cycle yatra has spread the message well across U.P. constituencies,” he said.

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Akhilesh also said following the demand raised by his party, several other parties were now supporting the demand for a caste census. “A caste census is necessary for social justice to give due representation to various castes in reservation”, he said.

Talking about Mulayam Singh Yadav and Saifai, he said: “This is the place from where we got the ‘cycle’ and this is the place from where Netaji (Mulayam) began making backward and deprived sections of the society wake up to their rights and struggle for their dignity. Netaji began his struggle from here.”