If the BJP can win over 300 seats in Uttar Pradesh by “spreading lies” then with honest hard work, truth and by bringing people together, “we can win 351 seats” in 2022, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday.
Addressing the media a day after his party’s national executive meeting here, Mr. Yadav said his party colleagues had vowed to win 351 of the 403 seats.
“Our target is big. I have quoted a number that nobody can imagine. Even we had not imagined that the BJP would win more than 300 seats,” Mr. Yadav said.
In the 2017 polls, the BJP and its allies had won 325 seats propelling Yogi Adityanath to the Chief Minister’s seat. The SP, which was in power, managed only 47 while the BSP and the Congress trailed even further.
On Sunday, several former BSP and BJP leaders joined the SP. Mr. Yadav said with the support of his new colleagues, “we won’t fall into any net” woven by the BJP.
Rejecting the BJP’s slogan of sabka sath sabka vikas sabka vishwas as fake, the former UP CM said his party’s slogan would be real as it was taking people together.
Asked by journalists about the Yogi Adityanath-led Cabinet’s decision to bring an ordinance for the recovery of damages to public and private property during protests, Mr. Yadav said in the backdrop of the observations made by the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court, the government’s move was an admission that it was doing illegal acts.
“The government was doing an illegal act, the Cabinet decision has proven. This government does not care about the High Court or the Supreme Court,” he said.
“Why does the government forget they so many people sitting in government have instigated riots. You tell me, in the history of UP, has any CM withdrawn riot cases against himself,” he asked, targeting Mr. Adityanath who had as head of state withdrawn cases lodged against him.
PTI adds:
He said a palm reader had recently predicted that he will win 350 of the 403 seats in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and asserted that if voted to power, his government will hold a caste-wise census.