Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | Inflation 'rising' due to BJP's waiver of Rs 16 lakh crore loans of industrialists: Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav, during a workers' conference said that the country's farmers, poor, youth and minority communities are standing together against the BJP and will ensure its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

Etawah: Blaming the ruling BJP for 'rising' inflation in the country, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said the waiver of Rs 16 lakh crore loans of industrialists and extorting money from them in the guise of electoral bonds have led to price rise in the country.

Addressing the workers' conference of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc in Etawah, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, the country's farmers, poor, youth and minority communities are standing together against the BJP and will ensure its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

"The BJP has so far waived Rs 16 lakh crore loans of industrialists. The loans of the big and powerful people who supported them (BJP) were not only waived but they were also given more loans from banks and donations were taken from the same companies. The result is that today we are facing inflation," Yadav said.

"The way the electoral bonds have been exposed... donations can be of Rs 10, Rs 1,000 or Rs 10,000. If someone is very rich, he can donate Rs one or two lakh but no one will donate Rs 1,000 crore, Rs 600 crore or Rs 500 crore."

"It is wrong to call the money taken by the BJP as donations. The BJP has made vasuli (extortion) and perhaps no one else in history would have made so much vasuli," he added.

Yadav also accused central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income Tax Department of extorting money on the directions of the BJP government at the Centre.

"The BJP people did not spare even the company from which you got the (Covid) vaccine and they collected donations from them too," he added.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of waiving loans worth Rs 16 lakh crore of his billionaire friends, and said the country will never forgive him for this 'crime'.

Yadav said the people of the country are starting to see through the 'lies' of the BJP. After the first phase of voting in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, I am confident that the BJP will be history very soon, he added.

Appealing to the people to vote for the INDIA bloc, he said, if the BJP wins again, it is possible that the right to vote may be taken away.

"This government wants to end democracy and change our Constitution. It is this Constitution which gives us civil rights. It is this Constitution which guarantees us everything," he said.

Accusing the BJP government of deliberately not implementing the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, Yadav said the BJP government does not want the farmers to be happy.

The BJP government gave Bharat Ratna to Chaudhary Charan Singh only to mislead farmers and secure their votes.

"But this time I know that people have made up their mind to vote against BJP... It is possible that the Samajwadi Party will win the maximum number of seats in Uttar Pradesh," he said.