Akhilesh to welcome Meira Kumar today

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav will host the UPA’s presidential candidate Meira Kumar at his residence on Friday. Kumar, who is coming to the city to seek support for her candidature, will visit Akhilesh’s Vikramaditya Marg residence at around 1.00 pm.Addressing party workers on the eve of her visit on Thursday, Akhilesh exhorted them to gear up for the 2019 elections. Lambasting the state government for shunning various development projects launched during the SP regime, he asked party workers to ‘unmask the BJP which has taken the common man for a ride in the name of demonetisation and GST which has only helped big business houses’.Akhilesh, who was on a foreign trip when the budget was tabled, said though the state government claims that Rs 36000 crore had been set aside for farm loan waiver, it has no explained how this fund will be generated. "The BJP government has shut all major development and welfare schemes merely because the word Samajwadi was associated with it. If those schemes were dropped , why the government has failed to launch new schemes,” he asked.They (government) say the growth rate in 6%in the state, but if you remove the contribution of the Muslim community, it will come down to 2% ," Akhilesh said. “The BJP government has turned a blind eye to the problems of the common man, be it the rising crime graph or welfare of the poor. The government should tell the people what has been done to control crime; how many criminals have been put behind bars and how many had fled UP like the BJP had promised during the elections," the SP chief said.