Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav exhorted the electorate of Bundelkhand region to throw out the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party from power like Rani Lakshmi Bai expelled the British colonial forces from Jhansi.
“The BJP swept the 2017 UP assembly election and won all 19 assembly seats in Bundelkhand and later in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it won all parliamentary seats from there. But what did the people of Bundelkhand get in return? They were taken for a ride and no development work took place in the region,” Akhilesh alleged while addressing a public meeting at Jhansi on Friday.
Attacking Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his government, the Samajwadi Party chief said that just as the BJP changed the names of places and other institutions, the people of the state would very soon change the government.
"The Yogi government has only changed the names of places. Very soon people in Uttar Pradesh are going to change this government. Youth, farmers and businessmen in Uttar Pradesh have decided to get rid of the Yogi government. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh are going to benefit if Samajwadi Party comes to power," he said.
Akhilesh further said that Uttar Pradesh was one state where the maximum number of cases of crime against women in the country was registered and the state also topped in custodial deaths across the country.
"If any government has received the highest number of notices for fake encounters, then it is the present BJP government in Uttar pradesh," he added.
Countering the charges of dynastic politics against his party by the BJP, Akhilesh raised the demand for caste-based census.
“Caste-based census is the only solution to caste-related disputes. The BJP is a master in creating discord in society and among castes to exploit it for their narrow political ends. Let there be a caste-based census after which the numerical strength of each caste will be on record. Subsequently, those enjoying strength on paper will be exposed,” the SP chief said.
On alliance of Samajwadi Party with smaller caste-based political parties, Akhilesh said, “Now Pal and Gopal (Yadavs) have joined hands and no force on earth can fight this formidable combination.”
Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are slated for early next year. In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP bagged 312 seats out of the 403 seats in the UP Assembly while the SP could muster only 47 seats, Bahujan Samajwadi Party won 19 and Congress could manage to win only seven seats. The Rashtriya Lok Dal and Nishad Party won one seat each, Apna Dal bagged nine seats, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) managed to win four seats while Independents won three seats.
Apna Dal and SBSP were allies of the BJP but the SBSP walked out of the alliance after the May 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
