“BJP Will Lose In UP Elections, They Failed People”: Akhilesh Yadav

In an interview to NDTV, Akhilesh Yadav predicted that the BJP will lose next year’s Uttar Pradesh election as people want change.

In an interview to NDTV, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav predicted that the BJP will lose next year’s Uttar Pradesh election as people want change. Mr Yadav also slammed CM Yogi Adityanath and his policies. The SP leader also said that his party would contest elections in alliance with like-minded smaller parties instead of major parties.

Akhilesh Yadav, without naming Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress, told NDTV: “My experience with big parties is not good, I will not get into any alliance with them.”

The Samajwadi Party is targeting 300 of UP’s 403 seats in the state election that is less than a year away, he said.

“The BJP is going to lose the upcoming UP elections… they failed the people of UP in the biggest test of their leadership. The government is still hiding the true Covid deaths,” Akhilesh Yadav said.

The SP supremo also pledged to take the Covid vaccine only when all the poor in the state received it free of cost as he attempted a clarification on his controversial comments on vaccines, NDTV reported.

“I had only refused to take the vaccine initially because it had not completed all the trials,” Mr Yadav clarified on concerns that he played a role in spreading vaccine hesitancy in UP by initially refusing to take it and calling Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin the “BJP vaccine”.

Akhilesh Yadav also refuted the charge that the Samajwadi Party is not visible on the ground before upcoming UP polls.

“We have held training camps across UP. When the farmer’s protest began our karyakartas showed support. I myself wanted to go to Kannauj but was not allowed to leave my house… you can’t just show what the BJP wants to project,” Mr Yadav told NDTV.