Put poll debacle behind, win back support, Mulayam tells party

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav Friday urged party workers and legislators to move ahead from the humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and work to win back the confidence and support of the people.

Addressing the party leaders at the party headquarters at Vikramaditya Marg here, Mulayam Singh, while admitting that the crushing defeat at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party was "unexpected and painful", urged party legislators to put the defeat behind them and move on with work in their assembly constituencies.

"We have faced many electoral reverses in the past and risen thereafter and there was no need to be sullen at the loss for long," he told the party leaders and asked them to work even harder to win back the confidence of the people.

Referring to the work done by the state government led by his son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh said the state had developed in the past two years of SP rule and the work done in UP could not be compared with Gujarat or any other state.

While admitting that the state government failed to put its development and welfare schemes before the people effectively, he exhorted the party legislators to inform and educate the people of the good work done by the government and warn them about the fascist and dangerous agenda of the BJP.