Continuing with his outreach to the backward sections of the electorate, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said on Thursday “change is imminent in Uttar Pradesh”.
Addressing a ‘Kashyap Mahasammelan’ in Muzaffarnagar, Mr. Yadav said farmers’ inquilab (revolution) will lead to badlav (change) in 2022.
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Indicating at adding more local parties to its bouquet of allies, he said allies like Om Prakash Rajbhar would shut the door on the BJP in east U.P., while farmers of west U.P. would stop the BJP’s entry in the upcoming Assembly polls.
Gorakhpur and Kasganj cases
Taking on the U.P. Government for its poor record of custodial deaths, Mr. Yadav reminded the audience of the Gorakhpur and Kasganj cases. “It seems the Government has a policy of thok do [shoot them]. However, the recent brawl in Farrukhabad prison showed that even the police are not safe,” he said.
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Invoking sage Kashyap and Chaudhary Charan Singh, he reminded the community members how they once glued behind the farmer leader.
Mr. Yadav promised to consider the eight-point agenda of the community, influential in terms of the number of votes spread over the region if voted to power. At the rally, slogans were raised that “Allah [Muslims] and Mallah [Kashyaps, many of whom were traditional boatmen like the Nishads in east U.P., who work in vegetable farming and jaggery units in west U.P.]” would help Mr. Yadav’s boat sail through the elections.
The community leaders’ most prominent demand has been inclusion in the Scheduled Castes list which the successive Governments, including Yogi Adityanath’s, have failed to deliver because of the constitutional issues involved. An attempt made by the State Government in 2019, ahead of the bypolls, was struck down by the Allahabad High Court.
Observers say the BJP nurtured the backwards among the other backward classes and the Kashyaps are one of them. They are present in most villages in the Meerut zone. In fact, in Vijay Kumar Kashyap, the party also made a Minister. The MLA from Charthawal in Muzaffarnagar passed away because of COVID-related complications earlier this year.
Mr. Yadav rubbed in that the Government could not provide oxygen to the deprived during the crisis.
Alliance with RLD intact
On the absence of Jayant Singh in the RLD stronghold, Mr. Yadav, while speaking to reporters, hinted at divergent views on seat sharing, but added the alliance was intact. On the Congress attacking the SP, he said the party had to decide whether it wanted to keep the BJP out or not. “It is clear that only the SP could take on the BJP in U.P.”
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Earlier, responding to Mr. Adityanath’s charge of Hindu exodus in the neighbouring Shamli district, Mr. Yadav said it is for the people to decide whether they want an inclusive Government or a party that indulged in rumours. “The only exodus that wasted our five years was that of our Chief Minister from Uttarakhand.”
Lending support to farmers in the hotbed of the agitation, Mr .Yadav said, “You are not getting the right price for your crops. If the BJP returned to power, corporates will take over your land and you will be reduced to farmworkers.”
He said the current dispensation had promised to make the common man fly but the petrol prices didn’t allow the common man to even drive a motorcycle.
