E-Paper
SP only party to raise issue of unemployment: Mulayam
Farmers do not get adequate price for their crops despite putting in hard work. They are being neglected and educated youths are not getting jobs, says SP patron
VARANASI Hitting the campaign trail for the second time in the ongoing UP polls, Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday alleged discrimination on caste basis and atrocities on the poor under the BJP government in the state.
He claimed it was only the Samajwadi Party that was raising the issue of unemployment in UP and said if his party forms the government, it would provide jobs and employment opportunities to youth.
Mulayam was in Jaunpur to drum up support for SP candidate, Lucky Yadav, son of his long-time associate late Parasnath Yadav. Lucky, the sitting MLA from Malhani, is recontesting the seat, which falls in Jaunpur district.
Lucky Yadav won the Malhani seat in November 2020 in the bypolls after it fell vacant following the death of his father. Malhani goes to polls on March 7 in the last phase of state elections.
Before this, in the ongoing elections, Mulayam had campaigned for his son and SP president Akhilesh Yadav in Karhal, from where Akhilesh contested his first assembly elections.
“The country is faced with big challenges today, including those of discrimination on the basis of caste and injustice, atrocities being committed against the poor,” said the SP patron.
Yadav, Lok Sabha MP from Mainpuri, said there was no special facility for the poor, educated youth were jobless, while farmers did not get adequate prices for their produce.
“In such a situation, the biggest responsibility lies with the Samajwadi Party. The party has always worked for poor, youth, uneducated and the ignored sections of society,” said Yadav.
“Farmers do not get adequate price for their crops despite putting in such hard work. They are being neglected and educated youths are not getting jobs. Similarly, several other sections are being ignored today,” he said.
“There is violence somewhere…and somewhere atrocity is being committed. There is also caste discrimination. The SP will take all communities along,” said Yadav.
Vikas Yadav, a Samajwadi Party worker based in Jaunpur, said, “Netaji’s (Mulayam Singh Yadav) rally inculcated fresh confidence among the party workers. He campaigned for SP candidate Lucky Yadav, son of late Parasnath Yadav, who had been associated with the Samajwadi Party since the time of its inception.”
BOX
‘Mulayam’s rally will help
mobilise voters in favour of SP’
Parasnath Yadav had won his first assembly election from Jaunpur’s Barsathi seat in 1985 on Lok Dal ticket. He was re-elected in 1989 as Janata Dal candidate. In 1993, he won the seat as Samajwadi Party candidate. In 1996 and 2002, Parasnath was elected from Mariyahu, also in Jaunpur, on the SP ticket. He won the Malhani seat in 2012 and 2017 for the SP.
In the 2022 election, the SP has fielded Sushma Patel from Mariyahu, Ragini Sonkar from Machhli Shahar, Pankaj Patel from Mungra Badshahpur, Arshad Khan from Jaunpur Sadar, Jagdishnayan Rai (SP-SBSP alliance candidate) from Zafarabad, Shailendra Yadav Lalai from Shahganj, Toofani Saroj from Kerakat, and Baba Dubey from Badlapur. All these seats are in Jaunpur.
Patanjali Pandey, a research scholar at Banaras Hindu University’s department of political science, said the Samajwadi Party enjoyed strong support in the Purvanchal region (east UP) till the 2017 assembly election. “But the scenario changed in 2017. The trend continued even in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In this election, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is coming to campaign in Jaunpur as an effort to restore the lost support base of his party,” he said.
Mulayam’s rally will help mobilise voters in favour of the SP in several constituencies in the Purvanchal region, he said.
