UP polls: Akhilesh Yadav promises jobs for 2.2 mn youths in IT sector

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said his party will provide jobs to 22 lakh (2.2 million) youths in the IT sector if it is voted to power in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Yadav was speaking at a press conference here.

At the press conference, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav also made a formal announcement that Yadav will contest the upcoming assembly election from Karhal seat in Mainpuri.

Mainpuri is the Lok Sabha constituency of SP patriarch and Yadav's father Mulayam Singh.

The SP will work to provide 22 lakh jobs to trained youths in the IT sector after coming to power, Yadav said.

On the work done by the erstwhile SP dispensation, Yadav said, "The SP government had made efforts to take the state forward in the IT sector. HCL was the first to invest in Chak Gajaria Farm here. Had the work done during the SP government been taken forward, Lucknow could have been recognised as an IT hub."

"But nothing was done later. In the HCL campus, 5,000 people are working and several others could have got indirect jobs," he said.

The SP government from 2012-17 was headed by Yadav.

Former Congress MP Pravin Singh Aron and his wife Supriya joined the SP in the presence of Yadav here.

Supriya was named by the Congress as its nominee from the Bareilly Cant assembly seat. She will now contest the polls from the same seat as the SP candidate.

Earlier, the SP had declared Rajesh Agarwal as its candidate from the seat. He has been replaced by Supriya.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls will be held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.