Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav Saturday took potshots at the BJP over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, saying the ruling party only knows ‘jeebh chalana’ (lip service) and ‘jeep chadhana’ (mowing down people).
His criticism of the BJP came days after eight people were killed in violence during a farmers’ protest in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri which left eight, including four farmers, dead.
BJP leader and Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish has been arrested in connection with the case after he was accused of mowing down farmers with his vehicle. The minister has defended his son, claiming he is “innocent”.
“The truth is the BJP knows only two things — ‘jeebh chalana’ (lip service) and ‘jeep chadhana’ (mowing down people). Crushing people and suppressing their voice is their (BJP) agenda,” Yadav said while addressing party workers at the Samajwadi Party headquarters here.
Ashish and others have been named in the FIR filed in this connection and the latter was arrested last week.
Claiming the BJP government’s tenure was “full of failures”, Yadav alleged that because of “wrong policies” of the ruling party, the state lagged behind with runaway inflation and high unemployment.
“The entire tenure of the BJP government was full of failures. Due to the wrong policies of the BJP government, Uttar Pradesh lagged behind and there was no control on inflation, unemployment. The law and order also got worse,” said a party statement, quoting Yadav.
“The BJP government has not done any work in public interest. The BJP is a strange party which is making tall claims without doing anything. The double engine government of the BJP has harassed every section of society and has not done anything itself but has been appearing in advertisements claiming the works of the Samajwadi Party government as its own,” he said.
Speaking about the 2022 assembly elections, he said it would decide the direction of national politics and would also be a testing time for democracy.
Cautioning the workers, the SP chief said, “We have to be careful of the possible conspiracies of the BJP. Since the BJP is very clever, this time there should be no mistake and SP workers and leaders need to mobilise themselves up to the booth level.”
He said people’s problems will end and the interest of farmers and youths protected only when the SP forms a government in the state.
Also read: BJP ‘crushed farmers’, will ‘crush Constitution’ after winning 2022 polls — Akhilesh Yadav