Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) had gained strength after the recent elections to state assemblies in five states.

The assembly elections were held in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram. The BJP sweeped the polls in three states, wresting Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress and retaining Madhya Pradesh while the Congress won in Telangana and Mizoram went to a regional party.

“The poll results of the five state assemblies must be a cause of concern for the Bharatiya Janata Party as the results have clearly demonstrated that the people are in favour of a change and the electorate will do this during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Akhilesh Yadav said, adding that the SP would win all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

He claimed that the double-engine government of the BJP had nothing to show as its achievement and the development work done by it in UP.

The SP had contested 69 seats in Madhya Pradesh this time but it did not even come a close second on any of them. The party failed to win any seat in MP and ended up with its worst-ever vote share of a mere 0.46 per cent.

This electoral reverse comes despite MP having historically been the SP’s second-best performance state after UP. The SP had won four seats in MP with a 1.58 per cent vote share in 1998, seven in 2003 with 3.7 per cent vote share, one in 2008 with a vote share of 1.9 per cent, and one seat in 2018 with a 1.3 per cent vote share. Even when it did not win any seat in MP in 2013, its poll percentage was 1.2 per cent.

Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the BJP government in UP had done nothing for the micro, small and medium enterprises sector. He said the government had waived loans amounting to Rs 15 lakh crore of the industrial houses but it did not waive Rs 2 lakh crore loans of the farmers. He said the farmers’ loan would be waived when the SP comes to power.

“The BJP owes an explanation to the farmers why the minimum support price (MSP) for the paddy crop has not been doubled by the government. It should also tell whether all the unemployed youths have got jobs,” Akhilesh Yadav said.

Accusing the BJP of being an “enemy” of social justice, the SP chief alleged that the Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and Muslims were victims of injustice due to the discriminatory policies of the BJP government.

He alleged that the BJP government was wary of caste census as the ruling party was against the idea of SCs, OBCs and Muslims getting their due share in power structure.