Cong should back regional parties to defeat BJP in 2024 LS poll: Akhilesh
In a statement, the Samajwadi Party chief suggested all these anti-BJP regional political outfits should come together
Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday invoked the Congress to support the regional parties in different states if it wished to dislodge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He suggested all these anti-BJP regional political outfits should come together.
He made the statement a day after senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after he was convicted by a court in Gujarat’s Surat in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.
The SP president said: “Several regional parties--giants in their respective states--are strongly fighting the BJP. All these regional giants should come together. And the Congress party should decide its role on the national level. The Congress should support the regional parties in different states. It’s time for the Congress to keep the regional parties in the front and support them in defeating the BJP”.
Akhilesh said: “In U.P., the Samajwadi Party is fighting and struggling against the BJP at all levels. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the SP will defeat the BJP (in U.P.). All people should support the SP so that U.P. and the country get rid of the BJP”.
“The regional parties are set to play a very big role in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and this will lead to the wiping out of the BJP. The Samajwadi Party has always responsibly played its role in the national politics and in the times to come the party will play its role strongly,” Akhilesh was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the SP.
He alleged that the BJP was suppressing the opposition parties in the country by misusing government institutions to exert pressure on them. “The way the BJP is functioning is now known to all and this will have a far-reaching effect on the country’s politics,” he claimed.
Drawing parallels between Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification and a similar action against SP legislators in U.P. earlier, Akhilesh alleged that since the BJP came to power in U.P. in 2017, it took help of the administration in getting false cases lodged against SP MLAs and got them disqualified from the state assembly.
Reacting to the SP leader’s remarks, U.P. Congress spokesman Ashok Singh said, “The Congress is relentlessly fighting the BJP in the entire country. Akhilesh Yadav ji is fighting only in U.P.. Akhilesh Yadav ji should also show a big heart and support the Congress. To oust the BJP is not a sole responsibility of the Congress.”