Ahead of the proposed meeting of the I.N.D.I.A bloc this month, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that seat sharing would be smooth in the alliance as Congress has reduced its ego/pride (ahankar) after its defeat in the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan.
Speaking at the India News Manch 2023, a three-day event organised by ITV Network, Yadav said, earlier the Congress had its ego against the alliance partners, and that’s why it contested in the Hindi heartland states alone, a strategy that has backfired. But now the SP is on good terms with Congress, and it is the latter’s responsibility to take the alliance forward, he said.
Additionally, Congress has realised the importance of caste census and is advocating it, which is a welcome sign for the I.N.D.I.A bloc. Now, we are united and ready to take on the zero-tolerance government, he added. He also said that people were fed up with the government policies and wanted; the BJP government has failed to fulfil the election promises.
Speaking about the challenge of finding a Prime Ministerial face, he said I.N.D.I.A had enough capable people from different backgrounds and age brackets. Taking about Mulayam Singh Yadav’s controversial statement about the women’s reservation bill, Akhilesh Yadav said that his father had misinterpreted the bill but he was not against it; he wanted the inclusion of Dalit, Muslim, and backward-castes women in it. Yadav said that they were not in favour of reserving seats for women, but the political parties should make it mandatory to give tickets to women candidates.
Commenting on the probability of Nitish Kumar contesting from Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections, Yadav said, UP welcomes every big leader, and only through this state can one become Prime Minister. He also praised Union Minister Nitin Gadkari for developing the motorway network in the country, and then claimed that not a single motorway was built in UP by the NDA government. Uttar Pradesh is building the motorways at its own expense. He also commented that the Samajwadi government built a world-class expressway where transport, as well as fighter planes from the Indian Air Force, can land.
“Our architectural designs are being used by NHAI in their projects. We gave the UP Police one of the finest response systems and worked for the betterment of healthcare facilities in the state. But, since the BJP government came to power, these schemes have been stopped by them. Now the farmers in the state are not getting enough money for their harvested crops, and the central government is giving PSUs on lease, which has resulted in a higher unemployment rate in the country. That’s why we are working to remove the BJP from power,” he said.