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Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday exuded confidence that the SP would win from Mainpuri in the Lok Sabha elections adding that people are ready to give a "befitting reply" to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"The people of Mainpuri have made up their minds to make us win with the great majority. What have BJP people done in the last 10 years? Do they have given jobs to youth? None of their policies have reached the people. The people are ready to give them a response," Akhilesh Yadav told ANI. Responding to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's remarks that there is no 'gundaraaz' and 'corruption' in UP, he said that the funds received through electoral bonds show "corruption". "The party (BJP) which collected donations money from people used to say, 'na khaige na khane denge' and those people today have collected money in huge amounts. No political party has received so many electoral bonds as BJP has. Is this corruption-free? BJP is not a political party it is the party which has made godown to keep all the corrupt and mafias in BJP," he said. Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and him 'shehzada', the SP chief said that there is no 'shehzada' adding that the people would decide who is 'shehzada' and who is not. Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party MP and candidate from Mainpuri Dimple Yadav said that Akhilesh Yadav has been campaigning for every candidate and is doing the duty of party chief. "He (Akhilesh Yadav) is the party chief and has been campaigning for every candidate and is doing the duty of party chief," she said. Dimple Yadav of the Samajwadi Party won the Mainpuri parliamentary byelection in December 2022, defeating Raghuraj Singh Shakya of the BJP by a margin of 2,88,461 votes. Considered the SP's bastion, the seat was held by party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and it got vacated after his death on October 10. The date of voting for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha Constituency Election is May 7 (Phase 3). 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 Lok Sabha polls will be held in India in seven phases, from April 19 to June 1, to elect the 543 members of the 18th Lok Sabha. The results will be announced on June 4. (ANI)
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