BJP’s ‘sangi-saathis’ to man booths during polls: Akhilesh | Lucknow News – Times of India

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said that BJP’s ‘sangi-saathis’ (friends) will man the booths in elections as the saffron party is convinced that its ‘panna pramukhs’ and workers have “abandoned the ship” after party’s loss in UP in Lok Sabha elections.
“Now that BJP’s ‘sangi-saathis’ have said that they will man the booths in elections, it clearly means that keeping in mind the historic defeat in Lok Sabha polls, the BJP is convinced that its workers have left the booths.It also means that ‘panna pramukhs’ have abandoned the ship,” Akhilesh said in a written statement.
“If that is not the case, then the other possibility could be that BJP’s ‘sangi-saathis’ no longer have faith in party workers. Actually, after the defeat, various groups in the BJP have lost confidence in each other,” he said.
Though Akhilesh did not name any organization and used the term ‘sangi-saathi’, in political circles the statement was seen in reference to the recent meetings of RSS brass with BJP functionaries in Haryana and prior to that in UP. Akhilesh said that another facet of this development was that BJP’s friends want to establish that they were not the reason behind BJP’s poll defeat. “They want to send across a message that they are still strong, and it is the BJP that has turned weak. Those who indulged in politics of divide and rule themselves stand divided now,” he said. “Have the much-hyped ‘panna pramukhs’ of BJP abandoned the ship? If they are no longer with the party, then there should be some strong reason behind it,” Akhilesh said.
“BJP workers on ground have seen how PDA – Pichhde (backward classes), Dalits and Alpsankhyak (minorities) – unitedly voted for the SP in Lok Sabha polls and how their efforts to approach the same section for votes, will go waste,” he said.
“People have seen through the tall claims of ‘panna pramukhs’. There is no one to listen to the grievances of the people. ‘Panna pramukhs’ seem to have realized this and are now looking for refuge in other parties,” Akhilesh said.
Underlining the role of PDA in the present political scenario, he said those who were deprived and sidelined for ages had awakened. “For PDA, politics is only the means, and the aim is welfare of the society much in contrast with BJP’s target of acquiring power by forming govt by any means whatsoever with the aim of indulging in corruption at the cost of people’s well-being,” he said.
Akhilesh then posed a set of 24 questions which, he claimed, people from PDA were waiting to ask to the BJP when it goes out for campaign before the assembly elections. The questions ranged from stray cattle to paper leaks, farm laws, “manipulation of reservation” in appointment of 69,000 teachers, price rise and unemployment.