SP chief Akhilesh promises 300 units of free electricity

Households in Uttar Pradesh will get 300 units of electricity for free if people return Samajwadi Party to power in the upcoming assembly elections to be held early this year, party president Akhilesh Yadav promised on Saturday

Updated on: Jan 1, 2022, 23:29:02 IST

By Pankaj Jaiswal, LUCKNOW

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Households in Uttar Pradesh will get 300 units of electricity for free if people return Samajwadi Party to power in the upcoming assembly elections to be held early this year, party president Akhilesh Yadav promised on Saturday. Farmers will also get free electricity to drive pumps to irrigate their fields, he said.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav addresses party workers on New Year's day, at party headquarters, in Lucknow on Saturday. (Pawan Kumar)

“This will be the first promise in the SP’s manifesto,” the former chief minister said. “And everyone knows that what SP promises, it delivers.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party made every effort to ruin 2021, Yadav said at the party’s office in Lucknow.

He also attacked the BJP government over tax raids in Kannauj and Kanpur.

“I came to the conclusion that it was a snag in Digital India. Accidentally, the raid revealed tonnes of cash at the house of a person who is a BJP person,” he said. “And all the money that came out was not of the SP, but it might be of the BJP.”

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath was quick to slam Yadav over his poll promise of free electricity.

“Now when elections are near, they are promising free electricity, but did not give electricity to people when they governed the state,” Adityanath said. “It was our government that provided electricity and constructed toilets.”

Similar promises have been made by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party at election rallies in Goa, Punjab and Uttarakhand, states that are headed to the polls with Uttar Pradesh.

Last week, during his Vijay Rath Yatra in Unnao, Yadav had promised ₹5 lakh compensation to cyclists in a road accident and ₹5 lakh for death in a bull attack. He also promised an extension of the Kanpur metro to Unnao, and an expressway from Lucknow to Saharanpur.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pankaj Jaiswal
Pankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.Read More