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In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav vowed to scrap the Agniveer scheme if the opposition coalition, the INDIA bloc, comes to power.
"I want to tell the youth that the day the INDIA bloc comes to power, we will scrap the Agniveer scheme," the SP chief said while addressing a public rally in UP's Gautam Budh Nagar on Friday. He also took a dig at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and claimed that "nobody is liking" the latter's "story or dialogues". "BJP's first show on the first day has become a flop. Nobody is liking BJP's story or dialogues. Their first show has become a flop. No one is coming to the ticket window," he said. Earlier this month, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Indian Army was against the idea of Agnipath scheme adding that this policy was a brainchild of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all decisions regarding it were taken in the Prime Minister Office. Congress, in its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls has promised to abolish Agnipath Scheme and return to the normal recruitment processes followed by the Army, Navy and Air Force. "It will guarantee economic and social security for our soldiers," the manifesto read. Eight seats in western Uttar Pradesh, including Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina, Moradabad, and Rampur, went to polls in the first phase of the general elections. In the 2019 elections, turning the arithmetic of the SP-BSP 'Mahagatbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh upside down, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The partners in the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav's SP and Mayawati's BSP, could only muster 15 seats. The curtains went up on the festival of democracy in the country on Friday, with 102 constituencies across 21 states and Union Territories polling in the opening phase. (ANI)
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