LUCKNOW: Extending his gratitude to Ansari brothers for merger of their Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) with Samajwadi Party, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav expressed confidence that their support would strengthen the party in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The SP president was addressing a huge public rally, organised at RTI ground in Ghazipur on Wednesday to kick off the party’s poll campaign for 2017 state elections.
Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED), lead by mafia don- turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari had merged with the Samajwadi Party recently on the initiative of former minister and now state SP chief Shivpal Yadav despite strong reservation by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Mukhtar and his brother Sigbatulla are QED MLA from Mau and Ghazipur Assembly constituencies, repectively.
Even though Mulayam was accompanied by Shivpal, his son Aditya Yadav, QED leaders and other senior party leaders of the region, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Prof Ram Gopal Yadav, and Azam Khan were conspicuous by their absence. TNIE had reported on Wednesday that Akhilesh was likely to skip the rally. Given that it was SP’s much-hyped rally to launch UP campaign, the crowd was a little thin at the beginning, but as it progressed, the RTI ground was packed to the capacity, which enthused the SP patriarch.
Crediting Shivpal for working out the QED-SP merger, Mulayam said that he supported the move openly despite dissenting voices from various quarters within the party. “Now all those, who were opposing this truck, are realising its benefits,” said the SP chief.
Mulayam urged the people to support and bring Samajwadi Party back to power again with absolute majority in the state. ”To continue this development which has been brought about by the SP government during the past five years, bring the party back with a thumping majority,” he said.
The SP chief gave a clarion call to the party youth to make the organisation strong through discipline , honesty and diligence. “You have to run the show in future. We will not always be there. You have to take the party forward to serve the people. So try to imbibe the party’s culture and its values in depth,” he averred.
Referring to the Yadav family feud, the SP chief cautioned the party and the family against the designs of rumour-mongers and plotters who want to destroy and weaken the organisation.
Mulayam attacked the Modi government over demonetisation saying that due to Centre’s ill-planned move at a wrong time, countrymen, especially, the farmers and the troops were suffering. “Everyone is standing in queue for their own money. Even after 15 days of the announcement of demonetisation, the situation is not easing out. Queues are not at all shortening in front of the ATMs and banks. Suddenly, the country seems to be in the grip of a financial emergency-like situation,” he said.
He also accused Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi and his team of running the government with arrogance and haughtiness. “A country like India cannot be governed on whims. People of India may be illiterate and poor but they will let any government work on whims coupled with arrogance,” said the SP supremo.
The SP chief also expressed his anguish and concern over the situation on the borders. He said that the country was one on the issue of national security, still Pakistan was not mending ways. “Pakistan is not stopping ceasefire violations claiming the life of our one or two troops on a daily basis,” he said. Putting the onus on Centre, the former defence minister said that it was imperative for the Prime Minister to take all of us into confidence and tell us what was being done to put a leash on Pakistani misadventures on the border.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion Shivpal Yadav and his son Aditya Yadav too flayed Centre’s demonetisation move, which they said was troubling the common man a lot. Delivering his maiden speech from the dais, Aditya Yadav, who is the chairman of UP cooperatives federation, said, “Prime Minister’s demonetisation move is not wrong but the way it has been implemented is wrong.”