BJP is Rattled After BSP Announced Its Support for SP Candidates, Says Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: With by-elections in Uttar Pradesh's Phulpur and Gorakhpur inching closer, all the political parties and their leaders are continuously camping in the two constituencies and are leaving no stone unturned in order to garner support for their candidates. Samajwadi Party's National President Akhilesh Yadav reached Gorakhpur on Wednesday and addressed a public gathering to extend his support for SP candidate Praveen Kumar Nishad.

While addressing the public, Akhilesh Yadav said that all of a sudden we have become 'Saanp' (snake) and 'Chachundar' (shrew) after the pre-poll alignment. "Those who are rattled by this pre-poll support to SP candidate are calling us 'Saanp' and 'Chachundar'. I have seen such people sitting mum in the assembly and also crying in the assembly," said Akhilesh Yadav.

"We have to be alert and careful as this is more of a psychological war. The present government has not even produced one unit of electricity; it was all done by our government. The corruption today is at its peak, while big businessmen are fleeing away with the money which was deposited in banks by the poor people. There were allegations against our government that our relatives used to run the police stations. I would like to ask now who is running them. Instead of giving anything to the people, this government took away the Samajwadi pension that we had started," added Akhilesh.

Declaring the party's intent to "eliminate the BJP", BSP's Allahabad coordinator Ashok Gautam and Gorakhpur zonal coordinator of the party, Ghanshyam Chandra Kharwar, had said that the BSP would back SP's Nagendra Singh Patel in Phulpur and Praveen Kumar Nishad in Gorakhpur.

BSP chief Mayawati had said that the understanding between the two parties would ensure victory for the strongest non-BJP candidate, and hence, the BSP has not floated any candidate for bypolls in Phulpur and Gorakhpur. "We have spoken to SP and have decided that we will support their Lok Sabha candidate during voting and SP will support our Rajya Sabha candidate," she had said.