Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, today questioned a cheering crowd at an election event if they wanted a “Yogi Sarkar or Yogya Sarkar (able government)” in a scathing assault. The former Chief Minister made the remark as he kicked off the fifth leg of the Samajwadi Vijay Yatra today, ahead of the highly anticipated 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections, in which he looks to have emerged as the main opponent to the BJP and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
“These people have reclaimed Uttar Pradesh after a long period of neglect. There is hatred and loot politics, which has never occurred before. They only display their development in images, and even then, they present a photo of a flyover from Kolkata and factories from America; they even lie in advertisements. We must expel those who display false advertisements and dreams “At a gathering attended by tens of thousands of supporters, Mr Yadav stated.
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The Yogi Adityanath administration has boasted that it has used bulldozers to demolish criminals’ houses and has been strong on the mafia. Akhilesh Yadav, inverting the word, predicted that the BJP will be sunk by a “vote ka bulldozer (a bulldozer of votes).” “This is a bulldozer-driven government. Bulldozers, on the other hand, run on roads, not on people. This time, the people have the authority to vote. Itna vote ka bulldozer chalega ki Bharatiya Janata Party ka pataa nahi lagega (Itna vote ka bulldozer chalega ki Bharatiya Janata Party ka pataa nahi lagega) “, added Mr Yadav during the gathering.
Shifting gears, Mr Yadav also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said last month at an event in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, that Mr Yadav’s party had shifted from’samajwad,’ or socialism, to ‘parivaarwad,’ or family-run politics. “We are a family-oriented group; thus, we have previously assisted others.
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The BJP has responded by announcing a series of ‘yatras’ throughout Uttar Pradesh to galvanise party cadre ahead of the major election next year. Swatantra Dev Singh, the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh president, made the news on Twitter. The BJP has not officially announced the name of the ‘yatras,’ although it was previously rumoured that the party was preparing ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatras’ in the state. The yatras will take place shortly after Prime Minister Modi’s major electoral campaigning in the state. PM Modi is expected to visit Uttar Pradesh twice next week, first in Gorakhpur, the hometown of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, to launch a fertiliser factory, and then in Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency, to inaugurate the multi-crore Kashi Viswanath corridor project.