Akhilesh welcomes Bihar change, hopes Oppn can put up a strong option in 2024

About his party’s own plans come 2024, Akhilesh told in an interview to PTI that the SP was focused on strengthening and restructuring its organisation and will be holding a national convention this year.

Welcoming the developments in Bihar, the former UP chief minister said: “I hope a strong alternative will be formed against the BJP (in 2024) and people will support it.”

Asked about his party’s role in the formation of an alternative, he said: “Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and NCP chief Sharad Pawar are working on it. Our focus as of now is on strengthening our party in the state.”

Speaking in Delhi, the BJP dismissed Akhilesh’s remarks regarding Opposition unity. “People of India know that the era of (H D) Deve Gowda, I K Gujral and V P Singh (as heads of coalition governments) is gone. The country now wants stability, development, honesty and effective leadership. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has provided it and enhanced India’s prestige,” former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

He added that it remains to be seen how much understanding the Opposition parties are able to develop among themselves.

In the interview, Akhilesh talked about the SP’s loss in the Assembly elections, as well as in the bypolls to its strongholds of Azamgarh and Ramgarh, blaming it on the Election Commission’s “dishonesty”. Akhilesh had come under attack for not putting in enough efforts to win the two seats.

“There is no unbiased institution left in the country. Under pressure, the government is getting whatever it wants from these institutions,” Akhilesh said.

“The EC did a lot of dishonesty,” he added. “It did not hear Opposition voices. A large number of votes were cut from the electoral rolls… In Rampur, SP workers were not allowed to cast votes while in Azamgarh, red cards were issued to SP workers. Was the EC sleeping? It did not pay heed to our complaints.”

The SP chief said the party will hold a national convention this year and the focus right now is on strengthening the organisation at the booth level. “Our membership drive is on and is getting a good response. This time the drive is through a mobile app, online and QR code, besides traditional ways,” he said.

Akhilesh also talked about the coming municipal corporation polls in the state, saying the party had put in place in-charges and begun preparations.

On reported record Covid vaccination in UP, he said “data for the second dose vaccination is fake”. “There are no medicines, no treatment and no operations. The machines used have become obsolete, be it for X-ray, MRI or CT Scan. At medical universities in the state, ‘dalals’ roam about.”

The SP chief also claimed that the law and order situation in the state was in a “bad shape”. Officers and ministers are doing “manmarji (working as per their whims and fancies)”, while the CM is busy holding review meetings, he said.

Written by Abhinav Pandey