'Our demand for 12 seats in Maharashtra is justified': SP chief Akhilesh Yadav

NASHIK: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said his party's demand to MVA for 12 seats, including Malegaon Central and Dhule city, for the Nov 20 Maharashtra assembly polls was justified.
Speaking in Malegaon, he told reporters that the SP's state unit, led by Abu Azmi, has sought these 12 seats from MVA based on the feedback and assessment that indicated that his party was "sure to win these seats". In Uttar Pradesh, SP left only two of the nine seats for Congress where by-polls are being held.
Yadav also cautioned MVA to be "Maha Savdhan" (extra cautious) during the polls after what happened in the recent Haryana assembly elections.
"We have decided that Shan-E-Hind Nihal Ahmed will contest from the Malegaon Central constituency, Raiz Azmi from Bhiwandi West, and Rais Shaikh, the sitting MLA, from Bhiwandi East," Yadav said while addressing the ‘Jan Adhikar Sabha' rally in Malegaon amid heavy rain.
Malegaon Central assembly constituency has 3.4 lakh voters, and the majority of them are from the minority community. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, Shobha Bacchav won the Dhule constituency because of the massive votes she received from the Malegaon Central assembly constituency. Shan-e-Hind Nihal Ahmed is the daughter of Nehal Ahmed, one of the the tallest leaders of Malegaon who passed away in 2016.
Lauding the INDI Alliance's performance in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, when it contained BJP at 240 seats — much lower than its earlier performances and claims of winning 400-plus seats — and compelled the party to form an alliance govt at the Centre, Yadav cautioned MVA to be extra cautious during the Maharashtra assembly elections after what happened in Haryana.

"All surveys and media reports indicated that Haryana voters would favour Congress in the elections. But suddenly, when the results were declared, BJP emerged victorious. No one knows how BJP garnered the majority in Haryana," the SP chief said.

"The Maharashtra elections will be history in the making, and the results will go a long way in the politics of the country. If you support Samajwadi Party and MVA, it will mark the end of local alliance and also the alliance at the Centre," he said.

"The current govt in Maharashtra is not chosen by the people. It was formed by forcibly taking people from other parties together. It is important that we all stick together and defeat BJP. We have to ensure that there is a democratic govt in Maharashtra," Yadav said.

He accused BJP of spreading hatred among the people. "Their aim is to turn away people's attention from important issues such as unemployment and inflation," Yadav said, adding that BJP "wants to grab land and hence was bringing in the Waqf Bill".

SP chief slams ‘killing of people by UP police'

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday described the police encounters occurring in Uttar Pradesh as "killing of people by police". He said this to a question about the recent encounter by the UP police, in which two accused of killing 22-year-old Ram Gopal Mishra during a Durga Puja procession on Oct 13 in Bahraich, were shot while they were fleeing to Nepal. "People are watching the misdeeds of the UP govt. BJP govt's model in UP is to do injustice to people. And when people raise their voices, they are implicated by police in false cases," Yadav said.