Amid reports of protests by the people, especially the farmers, against some BJP candidates in the western Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday exuded confidence that the SP-RLD alliance would 'sweep' the forthcoming assembly elections in the state.
"Given the scale of anger among the people against the BJP, we can win 400 seats in the polls," Akhilesh told reporters in Aligarh. UP assembly has 403 seats.
Apparently retorting to prime minister Narendra Modi's assertion at a virtual election rally on Friday that the UP polls would decide the future of the country, the SP president said that the polls were for 'protecting' the Constitution.
"BJP governments are in the habit of changing everything...they changed names of many places...even the Amar Jawan Jyoti was changed....they will change the constitution also," he said.
Akhilesh also accused the BJP leaders of 'lying' to the people. "In BJP the stature of a leader is decided by the lies he tells....the more you tell lies the greater will be your stature in the party," he said.
The SP leader's attack on the BJP came amid reports of protests against the saffron party nominees in some districts in the western region by the residents of some villages.
As the videos of the protests against the BJP candidates and leaders became viral on social media platforms, the party blamed the rival SP and its alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for the same.
"The protests are being organised by the SP and the RLD.....only a handful of people are behind them...they want to demoralise our nominees but they will not succeed," said a senior BJP functionary while reacting to the protests.
SP leaders however said that the protests were spontaneous and not sponsored by them or the RLD. "People are angry with the BJP.....it is reaping what it has sown," remarked an SP leader. SP president Akhilesh Yadav had also said that the BJP leaders were being 'thrashed' by the villagers but the TV channels were not showing it.
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