Exuding confidence of forming a grand alliance against the “communal” BJP before the 2019 general elections, former JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav says a fight for social justice alone can stop the communalism being spread by the BJP.
“The biggest fight in the country is for social justice. Only this can stop the communalism being spread by the BJP. I am touring the entire country and meeting people. I hope a grand alliance will come up against the BJP by 2019,” he told PTI.
Mr. Yadav, who was once the NDA convener, said, “I am working to unite parties against the BJP as its ideology is communal. When I was the NDA convener, it was under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani and it had a national agenda, which has changed now.”
“This agenda has turned divisive now. The present government at the Centre is dividing people in the name of religion,” he said in an interview here.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was only taking round of temples and making unconstitutional statements, he said.
Asked about his role in the alliance proposed by him, Mr. Yadav said, “Let it materialise first. My objective is to unite opposition.
I have been an MP for 11 terms and resigned four times. This time around, I’ve got time [after revocation of his membership following dispute in JD(U)] to travel across the country and unite people.”
Terming the defeat of the BJP and the victory of the Samajwadi Party in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls “significant,” Mr. Yadav said the “message of this victory in CM and Deputy CM’s constituencies have gone to the entire country. People have now realised their power.”
Claiming that the BJP would taste defeat in 2019, Mr. Yadav said, “The BJP and its allies got maximum seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. But the political equations have changed now there. No section of the society is happy with the BJP. This time Hindu-Muslim agenda of the BJP is not going to work.”
