Akhilesh Yadav spoke to the press ahead of the Vijay Yatra rally by Samajwadi Party in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh today. He said that the ruling BJP in the state and Centre had failed on providing jobs for the youth or serving other sections of society. He said that while the BJP had promised farmers that their incomes will double, instead the incomes of farmers, workers, and small traders had halved while inflation had doubled. Akhilesh YAdav expressed confidence that his party would win from Unnao and sweep Uttar Pradesh too.

"We are here to expose them, that is why we are tlaking to you", said Akhilesh Yadav about the BJP government in an interaction with media persons before the rally began. 

He has made the issues of unemployment, price rise, farmers’ issues, handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and other development and infrastructure-related topics the mainstay of his poll rhetoric.

He then targeted the BJP on electricity generation and availability, and claimed that the people of Uttar Pradesh were paying some of the highest tariffs in the country.  “If power generation plants had been set up in Uttar Pradesh, people would have been paying less for electricity and the current crisis would not exist”.

“No One A Bigger Liar Than CM ji”, Says Akhilesh Yadav, Takes Digs At Demonetization

Criticisng the demonetizaion move announed five years ago by the Central government in context of the recent raids on Kanpur-based perfume tycoon Peeyush Jain, Akhilesh Yadav said “no one is a bigger liar than CM ji (referring to Yogi Adityanath). Yaav countered Adityanath’s allegation that the cash recovered from the industrialist from multiple locations is connected to the Samajwadi Party.

“If a man wearing saffron robes lies like this, how will people trust him?” Yadav said, and said that the means of transport through which the money was moved around, and the administration of banks from which it is withdrawn is under the BJP-run Central and state governments.

“Those who had said that there will be no black money after demonetization [must answer] how such a huge amount of money was recovered” Yadav said.

He also criticized Yogi Adityanath and PM Modi, without naming them, for projecting themselves as reponsible for the Kanpur Metro which was inaugurated today, and said that no one who originally had a role in the project which was begun during the Samajwadi Party regime in UP was invited on stage.