Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged Friday the Congress game plan was not to stop the BJP from forming the government at the Centre, but to come to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2022. He also said that the SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have sacrificed seats in national interest.
“Our intention is clear right from the word go. We formed alliance (with BSP and RLD) to stop the communal party and in the process, we in the SP and also the BSP had to sacrifice seats in national interest,” Akhilesh told this agency in an interview.
“But, the Congress’ agenda in the ongoing parliamentary polls is not to stop the BJP from forming the next government at the Centre. They are working for making the next UP Chief Minister in 2022 (when the next assembly polls are due),” Akhilesh pointed out.
The SP chief’s remarks assume significance against the backdrop of Congress president Rahul Gandhi himself asserting that his party will form the government at the Centre and that ‘after the Lok Sabha polls, the next target was (UP) Assembly elections (in 2022) to ensure that the state is at the top in education, health and employment as before’.
Maintaining that his alliance with the BSP and the RLD is ‘strong’, Akhilesh said, “Both the parties have sacrificed for the sake of the country. We have given up half of our seats only to ensure the communal BJP did not return to power again.”
Akhilesh refused to get agitated when pointed out that PM Narendra Modi has said that the SP-BSP alliance will crack once the results are out May 23. “What has the BJP got to do with it? Why are they bothered? In UP we are strong and the BJP is nowhere. And this is the ground reality. They are trailing far behind the alliance,” Akhilesh asserted.
Trashing UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s statement that complaints about EVM malfunctioning across the state by the SP is because it has sensed defeat after the third phase of polls, Akhilesh said, “He could not become CM. He is still under training. He did not get helicopter for campaigning for three days. He is nobody in the party. There are large scale discrepancies in EVM machines in Rampur, Badaun and Mainpuri too. Hundreds of EVMs malfunctioned. Is this not serious?
Akhilesh also was critical of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stating that the state has not seen any development for the last three years. He said once the results are out the CM will have no option but to return to the ‘mutt’ where he came from.
Akhilesh is also not worried about who would be the Prime Minister if the alliance comes to power at the Centre. “I am not a Prime Ministerial candidate,” he asserted. “We have plenty of capable persons to choose from unlike the BJP which has only one face,” pointed out Akhilesh.