Both good and bad, Akhilesh on no alliance with Congress for MP polls
The Samajwadi Party chief said that while the Congress was willing to give his party seats in the state, it had ignored his advice to draw in Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party to give the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party a tough fight
An alliance of Congress, the SP, the BSP and GGP would have dislodged the BJP in Madhya Pradesh by winning more than 200 of the 230 assembly seats, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said today. He blamed Congress for absence of a joint opposition combine in the state
Releasing his party’s manifesto for the November 28 assembly elections, he said Congress was willing to give his party seats but when he asked them to include BSP also as it was a big fight against the BJP, they didn’t heed his advice and the alliance couldn’t materialise.
However, Yadav said, “This is good that there is no alliance in MP with the Congress. Now we can speak against them and expose their weaknesses. It’s Congress whose policies are responsible for the BJP being in power in the country.”
About the manifesto, he said though the SP was only contesting on 51 seats out of 230 in the state, it still could be implemented if people supported his party.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said he was confident that the SP would win a good number of seats in the state.
The manifesto promises to a full waiver for loan of farmers, setting up of a farmers fund of Rs 5000 crore, institution of a farmers’ pension scheme, several other facilities for farmers, all school children, BPL card holders and pregnant women to get milk, curd and ghee in a specified quantity, free sanitary napkins to women in rural areas, construction of a greenfield expressway, Rs 5 lakh to the poor for construction of houses, free laptops to meritorious students in class 10 and class 12 examinations, Rs 6000 per month pension to a woman member of family after integrating all the pensions etc.
The party, whose poll symbol is a cycle, also says in the manifesto if a cyclist meets with an accident while riding a cycle and becomes physically handicapped, he will get Rs 5 lakh and if he dies, his family will get Rs 10 lakh financial assistance.
The BJP, however, dismissed the party’s prospects in the state.
State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said, “People know about credentials of Samajwadi Party which is responsible for pushing Uttar Pradesh to backwardness. Whatever the party president says in the manifesto, he cannot mislead people of Madhya Pradesh.”