Akhilesh Yadav: 'I Have Learnt How To Defeat The BJP'

INTERVIEW - AKHILESH YADAV president, Samajwadi Party

- Puja Awasthi

Q/ Half of this election is over. How do you gauge public sentiment?

A/ Since the BJP has come to power, a 440-volt current is running through the electorate against it. Of course, the party does not realise this. The first question it needs to answer is— why is inflation so high? Then, why is it that, despite the much-touted ‘double engine’, there are no jobs. The youth of the state are ready to uproot the tracks on which their train of lies runs.

When farmers came out with their demands, forget listening to them, they (the BJP) put up barricades, fixed nails on roads, called in whatever (police) forces they could and labelled the farmers terrorists and mawalis (disreputable characters). 700 of them lost their lives. It took them (the BJP-led Centre) that long to take back the black laws. When the SP rath (chariot) started moving from Ghazipur to Lucknow (November 2021), the government was petrified [by the crowds we were attracting]. Elections were looming in Punjab and UP, so they had no option but to withdraw the laws.

BJP leaders keep saying A for this, B for that (Yogi Adityanath had said ‘Abba jaan’ to allude to the preference the SP gives Muslims during its rule), but I say only this—‘Kaka’ for Kaale Kanoon (black laws). Kaka went and now it is Baba’s turn to go. I heard he has already booked a flight ticket to Gorakhpur.

Q/ Where does the SP stand after three phases of polling?

A/ In the first two phases, we have hit a century. With the fourth phase, we will complete another century. We will get our majority in these four phases. Then we will go beyond it.

Q/ The kind of language used in this election has been unfortunate. Why has politics come to this?