LUCKNOW: Warming up to the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, two political allies of the Samajwadi Party on Monday launched two separate poll campaign tours in the state.
While Janvadi Party (Socialist) kicked off its 'Jan Kranti Yatra' from Ballia on Monday, the Mahan Dal launched its 'Janaakrosh Yatra' from Bilaspur in Pilibhit, officials of the two parties said.
Both political campaign tours were flagged off by the state's senior SP leaders, the Janvadi party's one by Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary in the UP assembly and the Mahan Dal's one by SP's UP unit president Naresh Uttam Patel.
The two tours will culminate respectively in Ayodhya and Etawah on August 31 and 27.
The Janvadi Party (Socialist) launched its campaign with the "BJP Hatao-Pradesh Bachao" motto, with Chaudhary along with the party's founder Sanjay Singh Chauhan.
While flagging off his party's 'Jan Kranti Yatra', Chauhan said that the tour, which would cover Mau, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Prayagraj, Azamgarh and Ambedkar Nagar on its route, is aimed at making people aware of the BJP governments' anti-people policies in both the state and the Centre.
He said the objective of the yatra is to install the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh after the next assembly elections.
Drawing the political significance of August for starting the poll campaign tours, Chaudhary said it was in the same month that Mahatma Gandhi had given the Quit India call to the British and it was in this month that Ballia had freed itself from them.
Attacking the Yogi Adityanath government, Chaudhary accused it of being "neck-deep in corruption".
"They want to misguide people and divide society. The Adityanath government has nothing to do with development and public welfare. Owing to his government's wrong policies, society is facing multi-faceted problems, ranging from the farmers' agitation to inflation, unemployment, crime against women and fake encounters," Chaudhary said.
While flagging off the Mahan Dal's 'Janaakrosh Yatra', which will cover Bareilly, Badaun, Kasganj, Etah and Mainpuri before culminating in Etawah, Patel accused both the Union and the state governments of having failed on all fronts.
The Mahan Dal president Keshav Dev Maurya said farmers, youths and middle-income group people are feeling harassed by the Yogi government.
"The main aim of the 'Janaakrosh Rally' is to convey the anger of the public to the government," he added.