With Uttar Pradesh entering the seventh and last phase of Assembly elections 2022, the action has shifted to Varanasi. Top leaders across parties have camped in the holy city, which, apart from its religious significance, assumes political importance for being the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While the ruling BJP is going all out to retain its citadel, opposition parties, too, are leaving no stone unturned to make inroads. News18.com spoke to Samajwadi Party secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav, who said the ongoing election is a fight between the SP and the BSP, adding that the BJP might fare even poorer than the Congress.
He also claimed the Union government’s rescue operation in Ukraine will not help the BJP in UP elections and said Indian students were being “beaten up” in the war-torn nation as India abstained from voting at the UN Security Council.
Edited excerpts:
It seems Akhilesh Yadav had momentum in the first two phases of Uttar Pradesh election, but since then, the BJP has been strong. Do you agree?
The BJP doesn’t have any edge. Let alone an edge, they aren’t even our equal in the contest. I can tell you that the BJP is finished in districts like Ghazipur, Azamgarh and Mau, and will win two to three seats in Varanasi.
How many seats are you giving to the Samajwadi Party?
Ask Akhilesh this. The SP and its allies will form the government.
The BJP says all is not well in the Yadav family…
We will answer the BJP on its parivarvad dig on March 10. If we give it today, they will start crying. The BJP want us to digress from relevant issues. We won’t allow that.
Shivpal Yadav patched up but got just one seat. He did not campaign much outside Jaswantnagar. Why so?
Shivpal Yadav will be in Malhani and has campaigned in Fazilpur. The BJP lies and lies with confidence. A school has been opened for them to teach lies.
Naresh Agrawal in an interview to News18 said Akhilesh Yadav has no seasoned leader by his side. He said “Ram Gopal ji ko ghar baitha diya hai”. Your thoughts?
Can anyone take Naresh Aggarwal seriously? Even the BJP isn’t taking him seriously.
Amit Shah says Muslims and Jatavs are with BSP too and Mayawati still has relevance. What do you think of this statement which Mayawati also welcomed?
(Laughs) This is a sign of frustration, otherwise no party says which caste is voting for whom. They generally say that this caste is voting for them. The BSP is getting finished and its votes are getting transferred to the SP.
But the Samajwadi Party is being considered a party of Muslim- Yadav vote bank.
Every caste and religion is voting for us. We are talking about development and they are talking about dividing everyone. Who wants riots? Everyone wants peace.
Do you believe ration is a big issue in favour of the BJP?
They wanted to end the ration scheme in March, but continued it because of elections.
The BJP has associated your party with lawlessness, gundagardi and even terror. Is SP’s image a burden?
There is not a single case against Akhilesh Yadav, compare that with Baba. He had 138 cases of serious crimes. He took them back and they can be reopened.
I tweeted the affidavit of deputy CM where criminal history was mentioned. It was a long list. Tell us about such criminal history of our leaders. It is they who are criminals.
Sanghmitra Maurya has spoken against the BJP post the attack on her father Swami Prasad Maurya. Is she joining SP anytime soon?
Should she not? Sanghmitra, too, was gheraoed by people and she was rescued. Today, Akhilesh too went there. They don’t even know that cadre of their own organisation are working against them. This time, there would be record-breaking forfeiting of deposits by BJP candidates.
It is considered that non-Yadav Scheduled Caste votes are consolidated in their favour.
Not even a single vote is going to them. The fight will be between SP and BSP, and it is also possible that they fare poorer than the Congress. We know there are seats where the Congress can win.
Did you benefit from having an alliance with Jayant Chaudhary?
Definitely. In the west, they had maximum seats. This time, they will get five seats and rest will be with opposition. I have feedback from each seat. These (BJP) leaders know nothing. They ride in helicopters and have no knowledge of ground reality.
Where do you think Brahmin vote is going this election?
Brahmins have voted for us cent percent where we have Brahmin candidates. They (BJP) did two things wrong, one they did not make Manoj Sinha (the CM) despite him being finalised and thus Bhoomihaar is angry. The community is angry. Lt Governor is just a rubber stamp. Second is what did with (Arvind) Sharma ji. Despite the PM’s wish, he wasn’t made even a minister. Generally, L-G or Governor doesn’t campaign, but on orders from higher-ups, naukri bachane ke liye ana pad raha hai.
Dimple Yadav compared the saffron colour to rust…
Gali dene wale nahi jeet te. We are winning with overwhelming majority. UP will sound alarm bells for the BJP. They gave the state in wrong hands. Baba (CM Yogi Adityanath) isn’t even a BJP member till now.
Ukraine has been mentioned by the PM and Akhilesh Yadav as well. Do you think this will benefit the BJP with the central government sending its ministers off to ensure safe return of the Indian citizens?
When every country, including the US, asked their citizens to leave Ukraine, we didn’t react on time. They are so near-sighted that they could not gauge the severity of the situation. Students from our villages were beaten up in Ukraine. They were beaten because India abstained from voting (at the UNSC). Our policy had been that we won’t be neutral if there is injustice happening in the world. We can at least say wrong is wrong. If we can’t say that, can we call our country a strong nation? This won’t have any impact on elections.
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