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Sensing defeat in Uttar Pradesh, BJP on project-launch spree: Akhilesh
Akhilesh’s statement came soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated nine medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh on Monday
Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday claimed that the BJP government was laying foundation stones and inaugurating a large number of projects as it had sensed a defeat in the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Akhilesh’s statement came soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated nine medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh and blamed the previous government in the state for “ignoring” basic medical needs of the people of the Purvanchal region while “filling the coffers” of their families.
Akhilesh attacked the BJP government at the press conference he held at the party’s state headquarters soon after several leaders from various political parties joined the SP.
“Today they are opening new medical colleges. But they had left the people on their own to die. People were dying in droves during the second wave of the Covid pandemic. The entire health system in UP had collapsed under this government. For four-and-a-half years, this government cultivated lies (jhooth ke phool),” the SP president alleged.
“Even this opening of medical colleges is a sort of a lie. They are opening new medical colleges but have drastically cut the budgets of the existing medical colleges in the state. Even the medical university they made in the name of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was functioning from the ninth floor of Ram Manohar Lohia Institute (Lucknow) and not getting funds,” he further alleged.
“Why medical colleges in Saharanpur, Budaun, Agra, Kanpur, Jaunpur, Firozabad, Jhansi, Banda, Azamgarh and even King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, are not getting funds,” he asked.
When reporters asked him to respond to CM Yogi Adityanath’s announcement to distribute tablets to students, Yadav said, “What was he doing for over four and a half years?” Akhilesh once again claimed that the Purvanchal Expressway and the recently inaugurated Kushinagar airport were also given by his regime.
“They (BJP leaders and PM) were not there to inaugurate the airport. They are here to survey it. They might sell it in the days to come. They are selling everything including railways, airports, etc,” he alleged.
Akhilesh Yadav said the BJP government might scrap the three new farm laws considering the forthcoming assembly elections in Punjab, UP and a few other states.
“It may be possible that in view of the assembly polls in Punjab and UP, the government might scrap the three new central farm laws and then reintroduce them after the polls,” he said.
Attacking the BJP government, he said this government had said it would double the income of farmers. Instead, the government doubled the price rise, he alleged. “Prices of petrol, diesel and commodities have gone through the roof. Farmers are not able to sell their produce and are burning it at the government procurement centres. The farmers are also not getting seeds, fertilisers and dying waiting in queues”, he said citing the recent incidents wherein a farmer set his paddy stock on fire in Lakhimpur Kheri and the death of a farmer in a queue in Lalitpur.
Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders Lalji Verma and Ramachal Rajbhar announced on Monday that they will formally join the Samajwadi Party at a rally in Ambedkar Nagar district on November 7 in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Ramachal Rajbhar is the MLA from UP’s Akbarpur and Lalji Verma from the state’s Katehari constituency in Ambedkar Nagar district. “We worked hard for the BSP for very long but were expelled from the party on June 3,” Verma said while speaking at Akhilesh Yadav’s press conference in Lucknow.
BSP had expelled the two on charges of indulging in anti-party activities during the panchayat election earlier this year. “We are here to invite Akhilesh ji for ‘Satta Parivartan Janadesh (change of regime)’ rally in Ambedkar Nagar on November 7 where we, along with our supporters, will formally join SP,” he said.
Akhilesh said the way people in large numbers were joining his party and the way his party was getting support, “It looks like that we certainly will win more than 400 seats and form the government”.
Once considered close to BSP chief Mayawati, both Lalji Verma and Ramachal Rajbhar had served as cabinet ministers during the BSP regime in the state. Before their expulsion, Verma was the state president of the party and Rajbhar the BSP Legislature Party leader in the UP assembly.
