Lucknow (TIP)- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) focussed on the politics of negativity in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls but its campaign got trapped in its own negative agenda, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Thursday, expressing confidence about trouncing the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh.
In an interview, Yadav said that the SP will emerge as the single-largest party in Uttar Pradesh and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will have the most seats, argued that problems such as unemployment and exam paper leaks had angered the people, and alleged that former ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was hand-in-glove with the BJP.
“The N in NDA (the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance) means negative; theirs is the politics is of negativity,” he said, contrasting it with the INDIA bloc’s campaign focussed on PDA, the Hindi acronym for backward classes – pichde, scheduled castes – Dalit, and minorities – alpsankhyak; a term the SP leader has repeatedly used this election season.
“P is also for progressive and P is also for Purvanchal (the key region of east UP going to polls on Saturday)… I have been saying that we are winning 79 seats and have a fight in one seat.”
Yadav’s comments came ahead of the sixth phase of the general elections on May 25, when 58 seats across eight states and Union territories will go to the polls. This includes 14 seats in the crucial eastern UP region.
He said the BJP was wary of losing and hence added a communal edge to its campaign. “The government has failed and is allowing businessmen close to them to exploit common people to make profits. The failure of the government has made us confident…When the BJP leaders found that they are losing the elections, they moved to a negative narrative. They are raising the issue of Hindu-Muslim, Pakistan. Speeches of both the PM and the CM are depressing,” he said.
Akhilesh said that people had understood the “game plan” of the BJP to “amend” the Constitution.
“The followers of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar and those who want to strengthen democracy and the Constitution have united and have joined the PDA family of the SP. Now the BJP is finding itself out of the contest,” he said, adding that the SP had successfully built a big social base.
He also hit out at the BSP, a party he fought with in 2019 only to fall out later. In 2019, the SP-BSP alliance won 15 seats, with the former winning five and the latter winning 10.
The BJP won 62 seats, the Congress one and BJP ally Apna Dal winning two.
“The BSP is hand-in-glove with the BJP. There is a secret understanding between the two. Today, I am coming back from Jaunpur. People are openly talking about the BJP-BSP bonhomie there,” he said, pointing to a seat where the BSP changed its candidate at the last minute amid controversy.
He said that the people felt cheated by the BJP government because of rising prices and unemployment, and that the so-called guarantees of Prime Minister Narendra Modi were finding no traction. “The guarantees are hollow and the people have decided to remove them from power.” Source: HT