Lucknow: Though a host of political parties have rolled up their sleeves to test the electoral waters in the 2027 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the real election will be contested between Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party, said former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav on Monday.“The people now want to oust the BJP. The BJP, on the other hand, wants to shift the focus from real issues. It wants to drag the common man into the Vande Mataram controversy so that issues like price rise, poor state of farmers, rising unemployment are forgotten,” Akhilesh said, addressing party functionaries at the SP headquarters.The SP chief attacked BJP govt for being insensitive towards the poor even during festivals. “Prices of essential commodities and food items have been on the rise for years. BJP govt has added to the price rise ahead of the festivals as well. To help their own people pocket hefty profits, govt has further increased sugar prices. Govt is not concerned about the people; they only care about big industrialists and their profits,” Akhilesh said.The former UP CM attacked BJP govt over the handling of milk dairies on the outskirts of the state capital.“In Lucknow’s Budheshwar, the Nagar Nigam had seized 350 buffaloes and was now harassing and exploiting the poor dairy owners. Govt must stop this gross injustice,” Akhilesh said.Over his recent statement in which he put out the number of seats that BJP was supposedly planning to give to its alliance partners, Akhilesh said he did that only to help BJP.“The BJP was taking time to allocate seats, so I did it for them,” he said.Taking a jibe at BJP’s development agenda, the SP chief said Gorakhpur Expressway was built at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore but it had started crumbling.“Similarly, the Ganga Expressway has collapsed and Lucknow-Kanpur expressway has caved in once again. The quality of roads has put a question mark on the development claims of the BJP,” he said.The SP chief further alleged that BJP has destroyed the education system.“We want children to be served hot, nutritious meals in schools. The utensils provided for mid-day meals during SP govt were of good quality and are still in use in most schools,” he said.
