BJP will lose UP assembly polls, says Akhilesh Yadav; rules out SP joining hands with Cong, BSP

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav predicted the defeat of the BJP in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls even as he said he would not tie up with Bahujan Samaj Party or the Congress to take on the saffron party.

In interview to NDTV, the SP leader said he would collaborate with smaller parties who would want to see the BJP fall. "Those who want to defeat the BJP, I appeal to them to help the Samajwadi Party," he was quoted as saying.

Claiming that the BJP failed the people of UP and citizens have been abandoned by the Yogi Adityanath-led government, he said, "The BJP is going to lose the upcoming UP elections." The SP leader also ruled out the "Modi factor" working in the saffron party's favour in the state.

He admitted that his experience with bigger political forces like the Congress and the BSP was not good and added that he will not get into an alliance with them. Akhilesh also revealed that a few BSP leaders were in touch with him.

Further, he said Uttar Pradesh has rejected the Congress and the party is took weak to take on the BJP in UP.

His party is targetting as many as 350 of the state's 403 seats, the SP leader said.

On Tuesday, the SP chief claimed that the BJP has not done any work in the past four-and-half years, and it has no work, which it can count as its own. "The BJP has adopted divisive politics, and has encouraged it. It spreads hatred, while the Samajwadi Party is committed to development and harmony," Yadav said in the statement.

Akhilesh has been criticising the state government over the pace of vaccination and had claimed that the government has been hiding the actual number of COVID-19 deaths. "According to information accessed through the Right to Information, it has come to light that the death toll in 24 districts of Uttar Pradesh in the nine months of the pandemic till March 31, 2021 is up to 43 times higher than the government figures," he had said in a recent tweet.

—With PTI inputs