Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday thanked the people of Gorakhpur and Phulpur for his party’s victory in the Lok Sabha bypolls and said the results were a message to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Yadav also thanked Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati Devi for her support in the by-elections, which hold an important spot in the state politics.
Mayawati and her party’s support helped the alliance win the two seats, he said.
‘Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh always give political messages. On one hand it was Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s parliamentary constituency, and on the other hand, it was Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s seat, both important to the BJP. If people of these places have such anger towards the BJP then imagine the anger of people in the rest of the country,’ the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
He also said the BJP had cheated the people by promising farmers’ loan waiver, employment like scheme, but implemented demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), made an insecure environment and insulted the Constitution.
‘There is no other party which has exploited the Constitution like the BJP.’
According to Yadav, those who exploit the people get a similar answer in return. The party could not bring ‘Acche din’ but the people united to bring ‘bure din’ for the BJP.
He also congratulated party’s Nagendra Singh Patel, who defeated BJP's Kaushalendra Singh Patel in Phulpur, and Pravin Nishad for his win against BJP’s Upendra Dutt Shukla in Gorakhpur, which Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath had won five consecutive times.
The bypolls were necessitated after Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats, respectively, to form a government. The BJP had last year in Uttar Pradesh Assembly election secured a comfortable majority against the Congress and SP alliance.
The Chief Minister had termed the bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur a ‘verdict for 2019 general elections’.
Senior Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav refused to comment on the possibility of an alliance with the BSP for the next Lok Sabha elections in 2019, saying "just wait and watch".
Talking to reporters outside Parliament, Yadav said that the victory of the SP in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bye-elections was a referendum against the Yogi government.
"Me and my party are grateful to the BSP and its workers who worked hard to ensure the victory of the SP candidate in these by-polls. As far as 2019 general elections is concerned, just wait and watch. And hope for the best," Yadav said.
Most of the SP MPs in the House were today seen wearing the party's traditional red cap.
Speaking in the well of the Lok Sabha, SP MP Dharmender Yadav attacked the Gorakhpur DM for allegedly delaying the announcement of the initial trends of counting.
The SP today wrested both the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats from BJP, which had won them in 2014 general election.
BSP, the SP's arch-rival, had extended support to the Akhilesh Yadav-led party in these bypolls The victory on these two seats assumes significance as Gorakhpur was won by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while Phulpur was won by Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is currently the deputy chief minister of the state, in the 2014 elections.
Both Yogi and Maurya resigned from their respective Lok Sabha seats after they were appointed as leader and deputy leader of the BJP government in the state last year.
With inputs from PTI and ANI
