News Analysis India

Tag: cycle yatra

  • ‘Mission UP’ in mind, Akhilesh Yadav embarks on cycle yatra

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: With an eye on the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday embarked on a ‘cycle yatra’ here to raise issues like price rise, unemployment, farm laws and crime rate.

    Though the “cycle yatra” at the tehsil-level in all districts marks the birth anniversary of veteran socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra, the purpose, political observers say, is to galvanise the SP ahead of the upcoming state Assembly elections, barely few months away.

    Before pedalling down the streets of the state capital, Yadav told mediapersons at the party headquarters that the BJP government has “failed” in Covid management.

    “I condole death of all those who died during the second wave of Covid. The government did not help those who lost their family members. It could not arrange oxygen and medicines and left people to die,” he said.

    The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, “I was saying that we will win 350 seats.

    But seeing the anger of people, I can say we can now win 400 seats”.

    Attacking the BJP for allegedly inducting criminals, Yadav said that as elections are nearing, the saffron party has put its ideology on the back-burner.

    “Party has not read its election manifesto (of 2017). Now it is concentrating on ‘money-festo’. The BJP has no work culture and could do nothing in the past over four years except renaming projects of previous SP regime,” he charged.

    The BJP has made Uttar Pradesh the number one state in terms of number of malnourished children, custodial deaths and disposing bodies in River Ganga, he charged.

    Taking a swipe at Yogi Adityanath, he said that as the chief minister did not know how to operate a laptop, he did not distribute it to children.

    The yatra, which will cover a distance of 5-10 km in all districts, is in protest against the “anti-people” policies of the ruling BJP, price rise, unemployment, farm laws, rising crime and to demand release of party leader Azam Khan, the party said.

    It said the cycle march in Lucknow will cover a distance of 6.5 km.

    Incidentally, ‘cycle’ is the SP’s election symbol and laying of cycling tracks along important thoroughfares, especially in the state capital, with demarcations painted red and green (colour of the party flag) has often incurred the wrath of its political rivals.

    The Samajwadi Party also plans to take out a ‘Rath Yatra’ in the state in October which will cover almost all the 75 districts of UP.

    The SP recently concluded a series of meetings with the workers of over 300 of the 403 assembly constituencies.

    During these meetings, the names of probable candidates for assembly segments were also discussed.

    The party has made it clear that it will not have an electoral alliance with any of the major parties.

    However, it is open for alliance with smaller parties, Yadav had told PTI in a recent interview.

  • Akhilesh Yadav begins 350 km cycle yatra from Rampur in support of Azam Khan

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav on Friday embarked on a 350-km ‘cycle yatra’ from Ali Jauhar University of Rampur to express solidarity with his party’s beleaguered MP Azam Khan.

    Rampur is the parliamentary constituency of Azam Khan who has been languishing in jail for over a year now in connection with a number of cases.

    While commencing the yatra, the SP chief gave the clarion call for Mission 2022. He expressed the confidence that the changing wheels of the cycle would bring about the change in the dispensation in the state in Assembly elections next year.

    He claimed that every time the ‘Samajwadis’ hit the roads on bicycles they changed the government in Uttar Pradesh.

    “After we took to streets on cycles across the state in 2011, the government fell,” the SP chief said addressing a gathering of party workers in Rampur.

    On Saturday, state unit president Naresh Uttam Patel is scheduled to flag off the cycle yatra from Ambedkar Park, Rampur, which will reach Lucknow on March 21 after passing through different districts.

    Taking a jibe at UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Akhilesh said that if the state had to be changed for good, first the CM should change himself as he was drawing credit for all the schemes which were introduced during the SP regime.

    Commenting on the encounter policy of the BJP government, the SP chief said: “The government knows only one language – thok do. What can be expected from those who believe in such a policy? How can you expect justice from them?”

    Referring to the attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Yadav said, “There is no institution in Bengal left which has not been after her. See what happened, she got hurt. The leg was hurt because these people know that if there is an injury in the leg, no one will be able to campaign.”

    He claimed that the day’s dispensation was framing such laws which would lead the country into the hands of private corporate houses. “The democracy is under threat. If democracy has to be saved, then UP will have to be saved and this will happen only if the present government is changed,” said Yadav.

    He said there is a similarity between Congress with the BJP. “Without BJP, Congress can’t survive and vice-versa.

    “So this time we will rope in smaller parties to stitch a pre-poll alliance. We will not talk to any big player,” said the SP supremo.

    Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav assured the people of Rampur that once the Samajwadi Party government came to power, all the development works would be done. He reiterated that Azam Khan and his family would get justice from the judiciary.