Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 14 : Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday accused the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh of causing mass distress and said the sprawling Bundelkhand region was ravaged during the five years of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s rule. Addressing an election rally, he said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were making tall claims that were far removed from the reality and, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi although not by name, alleged: “The biggest leader in that party is belting out the biggest lies.”
The former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh charged Adityanath with repeatedly trying to give the ongoing staggered assembly election in the country’s most populous state a communal twist because he had failed as an administrator. He said the Modi government in November took back the controversial three farm laws not because more than 700 farmers died protesting against it but because the BJP wanted votes in Punjab as well as Uttar Pradesh. “No one has disrespected the people like this Double Engine government,” he said, referring to the descriptive the Prime Minister frequently uses to describe the chemistry between the Central and the Uttar Pradesh governments — both controlled by the BJP.
“This election,” Akhilesh Yadav said, “is to decide the future of Uttar Pradesh, the future of democracy and to save to Constitution”. He said the BJP had betrayed the Bundelkhand region despite winning votes in large numbers in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha and in the 2017 assembly elections. “Despite this, they have ravaged the region,” he said.
“When thousands of poor workers walked to their homes during Covid, they were forced to squat on the borders and were not even given food or water for days… One pregnant woman gave birth a child on the border.” He urged the crowds to vote against the BJP and in favour of the Samajwadi Party.
