2024 Lok Sabha: BJP will be wiped out from Purvanchal region in U.P., says Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav addresses a public meeting organized in support of party Pratapgarh candidate SP Singh Patel for the Lok Sabha elections, in Pratapgarh on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav claimed on Thursday that the Bharatiya Janata Party will lose all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s made the claim during an election rally in Machhlishahr.

He added the way the backwards, Dalits, and minorities are supporting the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc in all 27 seats of the Purvanchal region, assures him that the Opposition SP-Congress formation will put an excellent performance.

“We are going to completely wipe out the BJP from the Purvanchal region. The way the PDA (backwards, Dalits, and minorities) are supporting us, it seems that INDIA is going to win all 27 seats in the remaining two phases. Ever since we have started expanding the PDA family, the BJP leadership has become scared. This time Purvanchal is taking the PDA family along with it. This area has always worked to strengthen the fight for social justice,” Mr. Yadav said addressing a rally in support of the SP candidate Priya Saroj. 

In the 2019 election, the BJP won a majority of seats from the crucial region despite a formidable Bahujan Samaj Party-SP coalition. In Machhlishahr, the BJP candidate B.P. Saroj won the seat by 100 odd votes. 

The SP president claimed that voters of India are not interested in listening to Mann Ki Baat, but want to follow the Constitution. “Now no one wants to listen to Mann Ki Baat, everyone wants to listen to the Constitution and wants to follow the path of the Constitution. This election is about the future of our coming generations. Our lives are at risk under their (the BJP) government,” Mr. Yadav alleged, adding, “they got us vaccinated forcefully and later collected donations from those who gave the vaccine.” 

Targeting the ruling BJP for neglecting the farmers, the leader of Opposition in U.P. Assembly said, “They promised that they would double the farmers’ income and make them prosperous. But in the last decade the income has not increased, and instead inflation has gone up. Their policies have increased the cost of farming.” 

Touching upon the BJP’s slogan of 400 paar (beyond 400), he added the slogan aimed at altering the Constitution. “From the statements coming from BJP leaders, it seems that they are raising the slogan of because they want to change the Constitution given by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar,” Mr. Yadav said.