SP preparing to contest all 80 UP seats

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said his party is making preparations on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh as it will also help support its INDIA partners on the seats allocated to them in the 2024 elections.

This comes days after the SP, which is a major constituent of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) of opposition parties, indicated that it will contest on 65 Lok Sabha seats in the state leaving the remaining to its allies.

“The Samajwadi Party is making preparations on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state for the coming elections, how many allies have to be taken along will be known later. But preparations have to be made on all the 80 seats as help will have to be extended to the alliance partners which contest the polls,” the SP president told the media here on Saturdays.

“The organisation should be prepared to help the alliance partners which get seats to contest. The SP is with the INDIA and PDA (Pichchde, Dalit and Alpsankhyak) is our strategy and the NDA has been perturbed by it,” Yadav said.

The PDA is with INDIA, he said. On the spat in Madhya Pradesh over seat allocation for the assembly polls, he said “… lessons should be learnt in politics, only this helps to move forward.” Asked if he will go along with bua (BSP chief Mayawati) in the 2024 election,”the SP president jokingly said “she has moved ahead long ago, why are you wanting to bring her closer”.

“We will move forward with the alliance (INDIA),” he asserted. Attacking the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, he said, “The chief minister doesn’t know anything. Health services have come to a standstill. If a poor person goes for treatment, they’re not getting it. Until now, the BJP government hasn’t built a single district hospital.”

Speaking about the AIIMS Gorakhpur, he said “it was founded with great hopes but are those who should get treatment here getting it,” and alleged that “there is not just corruption in the BJP government but also ‘Gorakh Dhanda’ (generally used to describe unethical practices).”

Yadav, who visited the Sharda Prasad PG College at Bhiti Rawat in Sahjanwa area of Gorakhpur district, also unveiled the statue of Reshma Rawat and addressed Karpuri Thakur Nyay Maharally.

To a question, he said the SP is a party of commoners and it has been working for the poor and needy since its inception.

He alleged that as people are not getting jobs, students have lost interest in studies. Not even 10,000 children have taken admission in primary schools, he claimed.

“Electricity is expensive and the condition of roads is bad,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said. He also accused the BJP government of discrimination and said rallies like Karpuri Thakur Samajik Nyay rally create awareness among the Bahujan samaj (backwards and Dalit).