‘Samajwadi Party wants to follow Netaji's path…’ says Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said his party wants to help people by following the path of socialism as shown by its founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. He was addressing an election rally for the party candidate and his wife Dimple Yadav for the bypoll in the Mainpuri parliamentary constituency. "Netaji revived the Samajwadi movement, we will be able to help the poor and farmers only through samajwadi movement. We will take the legacy that has been given to us by Netaji to new heights," he said. Mulayam Singh Yadav was referred to as "Netaji". In a rally in Jaswantnagar, the assembly constituency represented by Shivpal Singh Yadav, the SP chief appealed to the people to ensure the victory of Dimple Yadav by a huge margin.

"A lot of work has been done in this constituency by Netaji (Mulayam Singh) and Shivpal Yadav. Netaji and the Samajwadi Party have had a direct relationship with every family here. He considered the people here as his family, Netaji knew the names of every village and people of Jaswant Nagar," Akhilesh, who is Mulayam Yadav's son, said. He said everyone is happy that he and uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav have come together, but the BJP has the habit of speaking about his family. "There is no cure to this disease of the BJP of speaking about our family, if we come together then they accuse us of 'pariwarvaad'," he said.

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Yadav said all the facilities provided by the BJP here are only till the elections and that the party has not done any work for Mainpuri. Attacking Yadav's party, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, "'Chacha' Shivpal writes about Lohia, but he does not know what he is writing. Different brands of socialism are visible in one family. "Jiski lathi uski bhains," (might is right) or "lathait samajwad," (stick wielding socialism) is Shivpal's brand of socialism."

He made the statement during an election rally organised in support of BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya for the December 5 bypoll. "The socialism of Ramgopal Yadav has turned into 'punjiwad' (capitalism), he and his disciples in the SP government did not think twice before seizing any land that was visible from Noida to Firozabad," Adityanath said. "On the other hand, Akhilesh's socialism is opportunistic," he added.

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Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, which fell vacant after Mulayam Singh Yadav's demise, consists of five assembly constituencies including Bhogaon, Kishni, Mainpuri, Akhilesh Yadav's constituency Karhal and Shivpal's Jaswantnagar. Voting for the Mainpuri by-election will be held on December 5 and the counting of votes will take place on December 8. There is a direct contest between SP's Dimple Yadav and BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya in the constituency.