Would have got 250 on own, 300 with tie-up, says Akhilesh Yadav; Congress skips rally

Akhilesh chose Sultanpur for the campaign rallies though seats in the district will go to polls in the fifth phase. Local Congress leaders stayed away from his meetings in support of SP candidates and sitting MLAs Arun Verma (Sadar) and Abrar Ahmed (Isauli). Sultanpur Congress district committee president Krishna Kumar Mishra told The Indian Express that he stayed away from the Chief Minister’s programme because he was yet to receive any official communication on his party’s alliance with the SP and there was no clarity on the seats being given to the Congress in the seat-sharing arrangement.

ALSO READ: UP polls: Shivpal Yadav finds no mention in Akhilesh Yadav’s list of star campaigners

“I cannot attend SP events until the Congress state or national chief issues guidelines or directions in this regard. The news that I have received is only through the media. There is no official communication yet from the party top brass,” Mishra said. SP candidate Arun Verma said, “I had invited the Congress district president. I will ask him why he did not attend the election rally.”

In his speech, Akhilesh focused on targeting the BJP-led government at the Centre over its demonetisation move and how it had “adversely affected” the common people. He said the SP government had given financial relief of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of those who died while waiting in queues outside banks in the state to exchange or withdraw notes.

“BJP ke paas yadi vikas ka raasta hota to parivartan dikhai deta (change would have been visible if BJP had charted the road to development)”. He said the Centre’s budget in the past three years had “nothing for the poor” and it was “possible that the next budget could have some announcements copied from schemes of Samajwadis”. The BJP, he said, promised ‘achche din’ but “handed brooms to the people of Delhi and asked others to do yoga”.

State minister and SP’s Amethi candidate Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who was sacked by Akhilesh and later brought back on the intervention of Mulayam Singh Yadav, was also present at the rally. Akhilesh asked people to support Prajapati “because he will win and help others win as well”.