Those supposed to manage Covid crisis campaigning in other states, says Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday took a dig at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, saying “those who should be working in the state are busy lying while campaigning in other states”.

Yadav accused the BJP government of mismanaging the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. He alleged that for the BJP elections were important and not human lives.

At a press conference held at the SP headquarters here, the former chief minister said, “In the last four to five days, people have been suffering. I have seen it on TV; newspapers and social media are full of such news of suffering. And when I have personally contacted people, the pandemic has once again captured us. How do we get out of this? It is sad that when you and I are meeting, many are not here because they have died… The poor are suffering the most. They can’t understand if they should work and earn their livelihood, or should save themselves from the pandemic. And the one who should have worked is lying while campaigning in other states. What is the condition of UP? There are no medicines. People can’t get admitted to hospitals. Tests are not happening, and if they are their results are being delayed, and despite getting vaccinated, people are contracting the virus and suffering.”

Several Bahujan Samaj Party, BJP and Congress leaders joined the SP at the press conference.

Akhilesh added, “The hospitals are in bad shape because the government did not prepare because they were too busy praising themselves. If they had praised after the pandemic was over, it would have been fine. But they have hidden facts and data. They were celebrating. Can someone imagine that instead of vaccine people were given the anti-rabies vaccine? Nothing can be worse than this. Why is the government not fulfilling its duties? For them, elections are important, not human lives. They did not make arrangements when they should have.”

Yadav claimed that the BJP was losing the West Bengal elections and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee would be reelected for the third straight term.

“They are running the government on utsav [festivals] and advertisements… Did the pandemic go because people banged thalis last year?” Akhilesh asked, alleging that there were vaccine shortages in several places.

Talking about a row over his announcement that the SP would celebrate Dalit icon BR Ambedkar’s birth anniversary as “Dalit Diwali”, the former chief minister said, “I am happy that the party’s organisation will celebrate on April 14. The name can be anything. Maybe, one can complain about the name. But, we can have any name… The ones who trended the issue [on social media] were BJP and Congress handles. If the SP is embracing people who follow Ambedkarji, then what is the BJP and the Congress’ problem? Will they light ‘diyas’ on his anniversary or not? They should answer that first.”