Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today advocated for forming a ‘mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) in UP and other parts of the country to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 General elections.
The statements comes after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati had on April 14 said that an ‘anti-BJP’ front is required to stop the saffron party from forming the government at the Centre in 2019. Apparently desperate to revive her party, which suffered a severe drubbing in the recent UP Assembly polls, Mayawati said this on the occasion of 126th birth anniversary of dalit ideologue Dr BR Ambedkar.
Mayawati also reiterated her allegation that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were tampered with by the BJP in the UP polls.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav also launched a barrage of veiled attacks against the BJP government in UP. “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not consider me a Hindu. I think the first thing I should do after visiting a temple is tweet a photo of the same as a proof,” said the former UP CM.
Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s brainchild “anti-Romeo squad”, Akhilesh quipped that many innocent men were also being beaten due to this. “Nobody told the real story of Romeo. He had consumed poison. And today, God knows how many Romeos are being beaten up,” said Akhilesh.
#WATCH: Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav speaking about anti-Romeo squad pic.twitter.com/J8UuYaghzQ
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 15, 2017
Raising EVM tampering allegations against the BJP, Akhilesh Yadav said that the Election Commission should answer on cases of EVM tampering and that in future, elections must be held on ballot paper.
Following the allegations, BJP leader Shrikant Sharma slammed Yadav and said that both Mayawati and Akhilesh are giving excuses for their defeat in the assembly elections.
