Akhilesh, Rahul focus on youth, promise jobs, loans to 'Make in UP'

 Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday sought to woo the youth by promising them employment and loans to start their own business if their alliance formed the next government in Uttar Pradesh after the Assembly polls.

The two leaders, who addressed a joint election meeting at Meerut, about 450 km from here, also cautioned Muslims against supporting the BSP, which, they said, could not be “trusted”.

“We will have a separate policy for the youth... we will provide them employment and also give financial assistance to start their own business,” Rahul said.

He also sought to change Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' initiative to ‘Make in UP’ and said that the alliance government in the state would encourage the youth to adopt the new slogan.

The Congress leader also accused Modi of not fulfilling any of the promises he had made during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In his speech Akhilesh asked the Muslim community to “beware” of BSP. “We all know that the relations between the BJP and bua (Mayawati) have been strong,” he said, apparently eyeing the sizeable Muslim community in the constituency.

The UP chief minister also referred to the 'brother-sister' relationship between BSP supremo Mayawati and senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon.

“Who used to celebrate Rakshabandhan?” he asked. During the BSP-BJP alliance government in the state, Mayawati used to tie ‘Rakhee’ on the wrist of Tandon.

“There is an SP-Cong storm in the state,” Akhilesh said, apparently in response to Modi’s assertion here a few days ago that there was a “BJP storm”in Uttar Pradesh.

Akhilesh also listed the achievements of his government during its stint in the past four and a half years.

It was the second joint rally by Akhilesh and Rahul after stitching an electoral alliance in the polls.