LUCKNOW/ GHAZIABAD: Samajwadi Party national president
Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday promised 'Samajwadi thaali' at Rs 10 for the poor and an Urban
Employment
Guarantee Scheme on the lines of
MNREGA
for labourers migrating to cities in search of work once the SP forms government in the state.
Attributing the idea of introducing 'Samajwadi thaali' and 'Samajwadi canteen' to socialist ideologue
Ram Manohar Lohia
's approach to control price rise, Akhilesh said: "Lohia ji strongly believed and propagated that if one has to control rising prices and inflation, one will have to fix the prices of essential commodities. So we will set up Samajwadi canteens where essential commodities will be sold at a fixed and subsidised price. At these canteens, the poor will be provided food for Rs 10."
He recalled how the scheme was introduced on a pilot basis during the previous SP regime but was discontinued by the present government. "Our resolve is to ensure that no one faces hunger," he said, addressing a press conference with RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary in Ghaziabad on Saturday.
Stepping up the ante, the former CM said it wasn't UP but Gujarat, that goes to polls later this year, which will throw up the "real surprise". BJP has won the last six assembly elections in Gujarat.
Flanked by eight candidates of Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad, the two leaders said the "arrogant" BJP was forced to bow before the farmers' year-long agitation against the Centre's three farm laws.
"BJP had humiliated farmers and termed them terrorists and mafia. They stopped them (from entering Delhi) by sealing borders and driving nails into the roads, but farmers did not get up from Ghazipur and Tikri borders. The party could not explain to farmers why the laws were passed and later repealed," Akhilesh said.
With grains in their hands, the two leaders took an "anna sankalp" (pledge) to defeat BJP in the elections.
RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary said, "On one hand, the voice of farmers is suppressed, and on the other, lathis are used on unemployed youths. We speak the language of progress and have nothing to do with Jinnah and Aurangzeb," he added.
Later, the two held another press meet in Meerut where Akhilesh and Jayant coined a new slogan 'Bhaichara humara nara hai (Brotherhood is our plank)'.
In another major announcement, the SP chief said, "A lot of people come to urban areas for work, so we will bring the Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme on the lines of MNREGA to ensure employment for such people."
Akhilesh said the party had already announced creation of 22 lakh jobs and employment opportunities in the IT sector. "Besides, 11 lakh government posts are lying vacant. We will fill the posts on priority basis," he said.
"The Samajwadi Party wants to keep some things in public domain before announcing the manifesto for the 2022
Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. The SP has already promised 300 units of free electricity to households, free power to farmers for irrigation purposes, laptops for students and old pension scheme," the former CM said.
Countering BJP's allegation of fielding tainted candidates, Akhilesh said the BJP list had 82 candidates so far who have criminal cases pending against them.
"The party whose CM, deputy CM and the son of a Union minister of state have a tainted background, should first look within. The few candidates fielded by SP who have criminal cases pending against them had been falsely implicated by the BJP-led government," he said.
On the issue of BJP holding the previous SP regime responsible for riots, Akhilesh said, "The BJP leaders are behaving like a wrestler who knows he has lost the bout before the match is over. Such wrestlers do all kinds of things like biting or scratching the opponent which is not allowed in a match. They do it because there is nothing else that they can do."