Ahead of UP civic polls, Akhilesh accuses BJP of making empty promises

Criticises Adityanath govt over deteriorating law & order conditions, farmer issues

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Friday launched a scathing attack against the Narendra Modi-led BJP government saying the Gujarat model had utterly failed in the country.

Referring to the reforms undertaken by the Modi government, including demonetisation and the goods and services Tax (GST), Yadav said the Centre’s policies had only spelt trouble for all the sections of the society, including traders and the common man.

“The routine tweaking in the GST rates and regulations indicate the fiasco of the system. There is a bleak possibility that the traders would get any respite from the troubles facing them,” he said while addressing the media in Lucknow on Friday afternoon.

The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh accused the Centre-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of failing on its electoral promises. The BJP had promised to develop new cities during the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election, he said, while adding: “Then, during the 2017 UP assembly polls, the party changed its slogan for smart cities. Yet, no groundwork has so far been done to deliver their promise.”

Yadav went on to say that the BJP was only befooling the masses by making empty promises in its manifesto for the upcoming UP civic polls. 

Training his guns on the Adityanath government, Yadav claimed the law and order situation in the state was deteriorating day-by-day, even as people continued to brave difficulties posed by demonetisation and GST.

The SP president also raised farmer issues saying: “The state’s cold storages are filled with unsold potatoes, since the state farmers have not been able to sell them for remunerative prices. The sugarcane payments are also due.”

Akhilesh further backed his tenure as CM saying his government was had achieved the feat of completing the mega Agra-Lucknow Expressway project within 23 months.

“I challenge the Adityanath government to launch the Purvanchal Expressway project and complete it within 23 months,” he said while adding: “BJP is the ruling party at the Centre and UP. Therefore, they would probably not face funding challenges.”

He criticised the Adityanath government for allegedly putting a spanner in the various development projects for vested political interests.

“My government had made good progress with the proposed metro rail projects in Kanpur and Varanasi. However, the present dispensation rescinded these advancements. I am confident that except for the Lucknow Metro project, which we had launched, none of the other metro projects would make much progress in UP,” he added.

The UP youth were joining the SP in large numbers, claimed Yadav.