Samajwadi Party president and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday announced that the SP, along with its alliance partners, will contest on all 80 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Pointing out that the SP had won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll with a huge margin as the BJP had not even dreamt of such a defeat, Akhilesh said the ruling party got the crushing defeat because it was not able to give any answer to the inflation, unemployment and farmers’ problems.

But he did not elaborate on the alliances to be made for the LS polls. He only said everything will be cleared by the end of this year. “But we are sure to contest all the 80 seats in the state with our alliance partners” he said.

Speaking to the media, Yadav said that the BJP has made everything expensive. Milk has become expensive. Transport became expensive. The prices of gas cylinders have been increased. Electricity is going to be expensive. The government should tell where the profit of all these are going, he questioned.

The leader of the Opposition in the state assembly said that the BJP is showing the dream of making one-trillion dollar economy, but it is not telling what should be the growth rate of GDP to achieve that milestone.

He said the report of NITI Ayog shows UP was lagging behind in every parameter, but the government was covering up all these lapses.

The SP president said that the BJP government talks about destroying the mafias, but why is it not releasing the list of top-ten and top 100 criminals. He said that corruption is at its peak in the BJP government. Demonetisation has failed while all BJP leaders are involved in corruption and are being caught with currency notes at many places.

Yadav said that the BJP has betrayed the youth and did not give job and employment. The youth will teach a lesson to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, for giving half-baked jobs like Agniveer.

Besides, they are privatising and promote outsourcing. He said, “Our youth wants to serve the country by wearing uniform and do not want a half-baked job. The youth will have to unite and remove the BJP to save the country and the society”.

Yadav said that development in UP has come to a standstill in the BJP government. “The government is not able to spend the budget in important departments like public works, health and electricity. The Public Works Department is neither able to build roads nor is it able to make the roads pothole free. Similarly, health services are in a bad condition. There is an acute shortage of doctors and other para medical staff in hospitals and medical colleges. The BJP government has not given any budget to the health department. Tests are not being done in hospitals. No medicines, no a doctor in the hospitals,” he said.

The former UP CM said that the medical colleges which were being built in the Samajwadi Party government are also incomplete.

Yadav said that the BJP government has no answer to the problems and questions of the people. BJP is adopting new tactics to mislead the public. He said that the BJP government has ruined the police system. Police behavior has changed. Most custodial deaths in the country are happening in Uttar Pradesh. He said that the country should be run by law and Constitution. But the BJP government is neither following the law nor following the Constitution, he alleged.