People consider Samajwadi Party as alternative to BJP, says Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said the state's people consider his party as an alternative to the BJP and in this assembly polls, they will wipe out the saffron party.

He also alleged that the BJP has betrayed farmers and youths, while prices of diesel, petrol and fertilisers have increased manifold during its regime.

"The people of the state consider Samajwadi Party (SP) as an alternative to the BJP and this time, they will wipe it out in the assembly polls and form the SP's government," Yadav said while addressing party workers at the SP's headquarters here.

According to a party statement, he also promised that if voted to power, the SP will provide 300 units free electricity, free laptops to the youth and make arrangements for free irrigation for farmers.

"The party is moving forward taking all sections along and has formed alliances with regional parties. This time old issues will not work. The SP is training its workers for the past few years on how to take forward work done by the SP government and the party's future plans in the interest of people," the former chief minister said.

The SP was defeated by the BJP in the last assembly polls in 2017.

The BJP has betrayed farmers and youths, Yadav said, adding that prices of diesel, petrol and fertilisers have increased manifold.

"Contrary to the BJP's promise, the income of farmers is now half and price rise has doubled. BJP leaders never take up issues of youths and farmers. Three farm laws were brought to ruin farmers, who were labelled as terrorists," he added.

The laws, which were enacted in 2020, triggered over a year of protests at Delhi's borders by farmers, mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. The agitation was called off after the central government repealed the laws in Parliament last year and agreed to meet their other demands such as those on minimum support price.

Yadav said that all the promises and advertisements of the BJP are a "blatant lie" and asserted that his party always gave honour to women and initiated many schemes for their welfare.

The Uttar Pradesh polls will be held in seven phases -- on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, March 3 and 7. The results will be declared on March 10 along with the four other poll-bound states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.