Alliance with smaller parties stitched up, Akhilesh Yadav says Samajwadi Party will form govt in UP

Jaipur: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav claimed here on Friday that the Samajwadi Party will form government in UP after the upcoming state assembly elections. He also targeted the Centre, saying inflation and unemployment have become big issues facing people of the whole country. BJP’s state in-charge Arun Singh, however, termed Yadav’s claim as hollow and said there is no question of the Samajwadi Party making government in UP. Yadav reached Jaipur Airport on Friday to attend a marriage function. “The Samajwadi Party is going to form the government in Uttar Pradesh. We have taken regional parties along,” Yadav told reporters here. The SP leader said unemployment and inflation are big issues in the country. “As far as Uttar Pradesh elections are concerned, inflation is a big question before the people of the entire country and not only in Uttar Pradesh, he said. Unemployment is a big question before the youth. At the same time, the farmers are demanding the repeal of the three farm laws and asking when will their income be doubled. These are big issues,” he said. He refused to comment on the controversy over excerpts from senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s book, saying he had not read the book. Congress leader Salman Khurshid in his book on Ayodhya had apparently compared “Hindutva” with Islamist terror groups ISIS. BJP’s state in-charge Arun Singh rejected Akhilesh Yadav’s claim, saying there was no question of SP forming government. Singh, who reached Jaipur, told reporters at the airport, “The people of Uttar Pradesh are eager to form the government again under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.” He said, When the Samajwadi Party was in power in Uttar Pradesh, there were only riots after riots. Riots were not stopping. When Akhilesh Yadav’s government was there, there was a jungle raj in Uttar Pradesh, which people have not forgotten till date. There is no scope of SP coming to power there," he said. Singh also targeted Rajasthan’s Congress government for not reducing VAT on petrol and diesel and said that it does not want to give relief to the public. On the controversy over Salman Khurshid’s book, Singh said the public is watching everything. He said, “Be it Salman Khurshid or Digvijay Singh, they are doing such anti-national things and defaming the Sangh to defame our ideology. When eight to ten people in a series talk like this, I believe that somewhere, they have blessings of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. This is done only at their behest. The people of the country are watching everything,” Singh said.