UP polls: Akhilesh Yadav only cares for ‘one community, one caste’, says Shah

PTI, Mar 4, 2022, 3:00 PM IST

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav only cares for ”one community and one caste”. Addressing an election rally here, Shah said the elections in Uttar Pradesh is to secure the future of lakhs of people from the backward and dalit communities of the state.

Shah said his party will provide a free gas cylinder on Holi and Diwali if voted to power, and added that the BJP has worked for the development of poor and provided them free ration, medical facilities, housing and also ensured that their homes gets electricity.

He said Akhilesh Yadav only sees people of one community ”which we are not part of” and only one caste, without elaborating further. ”The SP chief sees one community with one eye and one caste with the other,” Shah said.

BJP leaders during their poll campaigns in the past have accused the SP of favouring Muslims and the Yadavs when the party was in power. ”We have sent money into the bank accounts of the farmers directly and we have promised they will not be required to pay electricity bill for the next five years if the BJP comes to power,” said Shah. ”We have decided to give girls free scooters. Also, the students will be given free tablets in the state,” he added.

Referring to don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmed, Shah said they have been sent to jail under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath. ”We are building homes for the poor on the land which were once occupied by the mafia under previous governments,” Shah claimed.

During the BJP regime, UP has emerged as the leader in sugarcane production and other agricultural products but under SP and BSP rule, the state topped in the number of murders and production of illegal arms. Shah claimed that the incidents of crime in UP have dropped sharply under the BJP’s rule.

”We have increased connectivity by building new highways in the state and worked for the development of all. Prime Minister Narendra Modi saved the people of the country by providing free Covid vaccines and have also provided free ration to 15 crore people of Uttar Pradesh,” the home minister said.

Shah said opposition parties kept article 370 for over seven decades but BJP withdrew it.

Ghazipur will go to polls during the last phase of ongoing UP polls on March 7.