Ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary held their first joint rally in Meerut.
The SP chief Akhilesh Yadav termed the rally a "voice of change" and said that the anger of the farmers and the youth would go to defeat the BJP in the forthcoming polls in the state.
While speaking toduring the rally, Yadav said, "People in Meerut want a change; youngsters do not have jobs in Uttar Pradesh, farmers here want to get rid of the BJP government. They have defrauded the farmers; their promises were fake. Sugarcane farmers want their due payments."
Addressing the rally, the SP leader said: 'The BJP's sun is certain to set and set forever. The support of the public is telling us that farmers will have their say now."
"...the farmers have been crushed and their dignity taken away, the farmers have made up their mind that BJP will have to go from UP and they will be wiped out," he said.
Yadav added that BJP's "double engine government has failed" in the state.
Further, the Samajwadi Party Chief said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath "should inform the Prime Minister that the foundation stone of Poorvanchal Expressway was laid down by the Samajwadi Party"
"They should also think about the farmers who were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri," he added.
Addressing the rally, RLD president Jayant Chaudhary hit out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and said that the latter was happy only when he was among his cattle. ''I request you (people) to make sure that he is free after the polls so that he can spend all his time among cattle."
The RLD chief also took a jibe at the CM referring to a recent question paper leak of the UP Teachers' Eligibility Test-2021 (UPTET) as well as an incident in Bijnor where BJP MLA was left fuming when a portion of a newly renovated road broke during a traditional innaguration ceremony after being struck by a coconut.
"There are exams in UP but papers get leaked, when you inaugurate the road in Bijnor, the road breaks as soon as the coconut is broken," the RLD chief said.
Jayant Chaudhary also said that "farmers have made a huge sacrifice, we cannot forget how farmers were crushed and more than 700 farmers were martyred."
"Today I want to say that Akhilesh ji and I are walking together and will now form a double engine government. We will honour our martyr farmers in Meerut as soon as our government is formed," he said.
The RLD chief said that they will gather in Aligarh on December 23 and mark 'Kisan Diwas'.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier today in in a veiled attack on Samajwadi Party, termed those with 'red caps' as red alert for Uttar Pradesh and said that they want to form the government in the state to show mercy to terrorists and set them free.
PM Modi's remarks came at an event where he inaugurated development projects worth over Rs 9600 crore today in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur.
Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to go for Assembly polls in 2022.
Previously, in the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 312 seats out of the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly while Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won 19 and Congress could manage to win only seven seats. The rest of the seats were bagged by other candidates.
( With inputs from ANI )
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