Akhilesh Yadav Promises Next PM Will be From UP. Did he Mean Himself or Mayawati?

Bhopal: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said the country would get a new prime minister in 2019 from Uttar Pradesh but did not clarify if he was aspiring for the post or would back BSP chief Mayawati or Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the coveted position.

Yadav, who was speaking to the media on the commencement of his two-day visit to Madhya Pradesh, said his relations with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati had improved considerably. However, he did not comment on the possibility of the two parties coming together for the Lok Sabha polls. “Let the appropriate time come and you will know,” Yadav said, adding that his party was open to alliances with “like-minded parties”.

Referring to the recent bypolls in Uttar Pradesh where a united opposition defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the former chief minister said the saffron party thrived on the ‘politics of hatred’.

He added that while social media was earlier used by people to keep in touch, the BJP had utilised it to foment hatred. “Initially, BJP workers were adept at handling social media but others have caught up with them now and the virtual world is filled with anti-BJP sentiments,” the SP leader, said adding that the party’s cyber warriors would take on the BJP force.

Accusing the BJP of indulging in caste politics, Yadav ridiculed Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, saying: “Chouhan came to UP for campaigning and left Chouhans of UP confused about what kind of Chouhan he actually is.” He also attacked the chief minister for the deteriorating law and order situation, bad roads, corruption and lack of safety for women.

When asked about his poll strategy, Yadav claimed that the party observers had visited all 51 districts to assess their strength and would soon take a final call on fielding candidates from those seats where the party had a strong base.

The former chief minister, responding to a query on allying with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, said MPCC president Kamal Nath was his good friend and he did not find it suitable to discuss details of the dialogue with him publicly. However, he added that the SP had extended support to the grand old party during the bypolls in several constituencies of the state adjoining UP by not fielding candidates.

Yadav said there was no need for the SP to highlight its achievements in UP as the Centre was already doing so by laying the foundation for projects such as the Agra Expressway and the Samsung plant that were mooted during the tenure of the previous government.

Besides meeting with the party cadre for two days, Yadav also plans to call on Arun Yadav, the disgruntled former chief of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, who has recently been inducted into the Congress Working Committee.