Adityanath responsible for crimes against women in UP, says Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said the 2022 UP assembly polls will decide the country’s future course of politics and expressed confidence that his party will win the polls while targeting the Adityanath government on the law and front.

“Our target is the 2022 assembly polls. We are beginning with the by-polls, in which we will do very well,” he said at a press conference.

Akhilesh held the press conference to announce the entry of several senior BSP leaders and Congress leader and former union minister Salim Shervani into his party.

This was the SP chief’s first formal press conference in Lucknow since the outbreak of Covid pandemic.

Akhilesh said it would be his party’s endeavour to connect more and more people (from other parties) and accommodate them in his party as it prepares for the 2022 polls.

When told that BJP leaders were holding rallies in UP by-poll constituencies while SP leaders were not going out, Akhilesh said: “Our people did work on the ground. You will see it in the results.”

Attacking the BJP government over crime against women, Akhilesh said: “In UP law and order has completely collapsed. I remember the apex court had once said all states should emulate the 1090 (women helpline)-like system.” He further said if all states had a response system like 1090, Dail 100 (which now is called 112) and if society was sensitised about women safety then the kind of crimes against women that have happened wouldn’t have happened.

“I hold the government and chief minister responsible for all the crimes against women. What would you expect from the government that hides figures? There are innumerable incidents where the government did not do what it should have done. What you expect if the state’s chief minister says ‘Thok do (kill them)’,” Akhilesh said.

He also accused the government of failing to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

“UP government decided that the disease would be less visible if tests were lesser. Cabinet ministers, members of assembly died, officers died, journalists died. And now the government is saying that we will have to live with Covid. If you and I have to live with Covid then why are our hospitals not proper?” he said.

The former chief minister also blamed BJP for the new farm laws that have sparked unrest.

“Just like the way people are distressed with Covid, farmers are distressed about their produce. This is the same BJP that had said that it would double farmers’ income. Today, paddy is being looted (purchased at low prices), whatever the farmer is producing is being looted. Everything is just slogans for BJP.”