1 kg 'Ghee', Free Ration for 5 Yrs, Akhilesh’s Poll Sop; Amit Shah Says Vote BJP to Get Gas Cylinders on Holi

SP president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday promised one-kilo ‘ghee’ to the poor and free ration for five years if his party comes to power in Uttar Pradesh, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah promised free gas cylinders on Holi if BJP is voted back.

Addressing a rally in Rae Bareli, Akhilesh said, “The poor, who are availing their rations, will get it till the elections. It will not be available after the elections. Earlier it was to be given till November but when the UP elections were announced, they said they would get it till March.” He also added that the funds for ration have not been earmarked in “Delhi’s budget as they know that the election will end in March”.

Akhilesh said as long as there’s an SP government, the poor would get ration. He also promised two free gas cylinders in a year along with mustard oil. “To see that the health of our poor gets better, one kilogram of ghee will also be given,” the Samajwadi Party chief said.

He also claimed that the quality of ration being distributed by the ruling party was bad and that glass particles were reportedly found in salt. Besides free ration and ghee, Akhilesh also promised to fill up 11 lakh government vacancies in UP to better the state’s employment situation. “BJP leaders were seeking votes moving from house to house. Their senior leaders were distributing pamphlets… but now that campaign has stopped because when they visited some villages, people showed them empty gas cylinders. From the day empty cylinders were shown, their door-to-door campaigning stopped,” Akhilesh said.

Meanwhile, addressing a rally in Auraiya, Amit Shah announced a slew of poll sops, including free power supply for the farmers.

“Holi is on 18th (March), counting is on 10th, bring BJP govt to power on 10th, free gas cylinders will reach your house on 18th. No farmer will have to pay electricity bills for the next 5 years,” Shah added.

Shah’s announcements reflect the promises the BJP made in its UP election manifesto where the party had promised schemes aimed at benefitting the farmers such as providing them with free electricity, minimum support price for wheat and rice, and modernisation of sugarcane mills.

Taking a dig at Akhilesh, Shah said that the SP president has said that he would provide fuel if the BJP gives scooty to girls in the state. “But if SP comes to power, there will neither be a scooty, nor any fuel,” Shah said.

The Union Home Minister also said that Akhilesh asks “what we have done? if someone has yellow-coloured glasses, they’ll see everything in yellow only…” He added that “guns and bullets used to be made under Akhilesh’s government, and now instead of ‘goli’, ‘gole’ are made to fire upon Pakistan”.

Uttar Pradesh will vote in the third phase on February 20. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

(With PTI inputs)

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