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UP polls: Jayant will be sidelined if SP wins, says Amit Shah
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2022: In a meeting in Muzaffarnagar, Shah added that since 2014, the people of Uttar Pradesh have been ensuring the defat of the Samajwadi Party and that this time too, it is evident that the Bharatiya Janata Party will win, much like it did in 014, 2017, and 2019.
MEERUT: In the unlikely event that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav forms the government after the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, his ally Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary will not be seen by his side and it will the likes of Azam Khan and Ateek Ahmad who will be with him, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.
In a meeting in Muzaffarnagar, Shah added that since 2014, the people of Uttar Pradesh have been ensuring the defat of the Samajwadi Party and that this time too, it is evident that the Bharatiya Janata Party will win, much like it did in 2014, 2017, and 2019.
Muzzafarnagar is in western UP, where the RLD has its base, and while the BJP swept this region in 2014, 2017, and 2019, a lengthy protest against the farm laws, spearheaded, in part, by farmers, mostly from the Jat community, from this part of the state, has made things tougher for the latter. Still, with the repeal of the farm laws in December, analysts say, things may have changed again.
In recent days, Shah has focused on the region, meeting with Jat leaders in Delhi, pointing out how the BJP and the Jats have traditionally fought the same opponents, even making a very public outreach to Jayant Chaudhary.
Also Read | UP polls: Won’t change decision, says RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary on BJP’s offer
Some of his comments on Saturday, analysts said, were in the same vein.
“Akhilesh said we (SP and RLD) are together, but how long?This is only till the counting” Shah told a gathering in Muzaffarnagar ahead of his door-to-door election campaign.
Muzaffarnagar saw communal riots in 2013, when the SP was in power in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party unseated the Yadav-led government in 2017.
“No riot has taken place during our rule because we established the rule of law,” Shah said, emphasizing that if not the BJP then the perpetrators of the riots will end up forming the government in UP.
India’s most populous state will elect a new assembly in polls to be held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7. The results will be declared on March 10.
The Congress party is all about the Gandhi family, the SP is about criminals and Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party is about caste, Shah said.
The mafia grabbed land during the rule of SP and BSP, but they have now been kicked out of the state, the home minister said. “We promised security and honour of mothers and sisters, and in the Yogi government, criminals were nailed,” said Shah, referring to chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s stern stand against criminals.
Incidents of murders in UIttar Pradeh reduced by 30%, rape by more than 30% and loot by 35% under the Adityanath government, Shah claimed.
The SP will bring back the mafia raj if it is elected, but if the BJP retains power, the state would be the best in the country, he promised.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has transferred ₹3,000 each in accounts of 2.53 crore farmers in Uttar Pradesh, the home minister said. He accused the previous governments for delay in making payments of sugarcane dues and claimed that timely payment of ₹1.45 lakh crore were made to farmers during BJP’s rule.
Hitting back, Chaudhary accused the BJP of resorting to stratagem to try to break the RLD-SP alliance. “Hamein baantne ki kootniti kar rahe hai (they are devising a plan to divide us ),” he said.
