SP-BSP alliance will knock out BJP in Lok Sabha polls: Akhilesh

Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh), Jan 11 :  Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said an alliance between his party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will knock out the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Addressing a 'chaupal' in Kannauj, the Lok Sabha constituency of his wife Dimple Yadav, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that the writing was on the wall for the BJP.

He pointed out how the coming together of the SP and BSP even in an informal way had ensured that the BJP lost seats held by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya.

With BSP extending its support to the SP candidates in Phulpur and Gorakhpur, BJP candidates lost in both the parliamentary by-polls in 2018, leaving the ruling party red-faced. 

"This time too our arithmetic is in place and we will ensure that the BJP loses at the hustings," the 45-year-old said. He, however forewarned the people to be on guard against what he termed was the "rumour spreading machinery" of the BJP.

Yadav added that for the state and the country to progress, one should shrug off caste and community affiliations and work for development. 

He accused the BJP government led by Adityanath of trying to mislead the people. 

Talking about the reported prospects of the CBI questioning him with regards to allocation of mines during his stint as the state's Mining and Chief Minister, Yadav said whatever the CBI had to ask to him should be after the Lok Sabha elections.

He tweaked his party's election credo 'Kaam Bolta hai' (Our work speaks) to "Hamara Kaam bolta hai, Bhajpa ka Dhoka bolta hai" (Our work speaks, BJP's deceit speaks). 

In his chaupaal, in which Twitter was extensively used, he was accompanied by his wife Dimple Yadav and former Uttar Pradesh Minister Abhishek Mishra. 

Yadav informed the gathering that he would be jointly addressing a press conference in the state capital with Mayawati on Saturday afternoon.