Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav dubbed the Bharatiya Janata Party as ‘Bhu Mafia (Land mafia) Party’, alleging that no other party had grabbed as much land and common resources such as ponds, and this was evident in places like Gorakhpur – the home of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Yadav spoke against the amendments to the Waqf Act and said that it would prove to be BJP’s ‘Waterloo’, thus undoing the party’s position of power. He said that the BJP was adamant that important issues are not discussed. One of the examples he used from the state was Uttar Pradesh’s inability to procure wheat and how it had been licensed off to private players.
#WATCH | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh: SP chief and MP Akhilesh Yadav says, "The biggest land mafia party is the BJP. No one has grabbed more land than the BJP. Just check the registries of Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Kanpur, and Lucknow. Here, government land, ponds, and many other things… pic.twitter.com/kPGcoLnZbP
— ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2025
Another issue he highlighted was the economy and said reliable numbers were not available. He added that at least the state government, which was quick to put out numbers for everything, should be able to say with certainty what the per capita income of Uttar Pradesh was. Yet, despite its ability to churn out numbers, the government had been unable to even give a definite number of the number of people who were injured and killed in the stampedes during the Mahakumbh.
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Another jibe was directed at the nodal officer for the state’s $1 trillion economy project, who has been suspended for corruption. Yadav alleged that all the corrupt officers were ‘hidden’ inside the residence of the chief minister. He also questioned the state’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy charging that for the first time ever, the state’s police was involved in kidnapping for ransom.
Yadav, who addressed the media at the party office, said that there were both good and bad chapters in history. The good should be retained, the bad left. He said that the BJP was spending crores to create narratives on social media. Such narratives were also against the INDIA bloc. This was being done because the BJP had seen the power of the alliance’s PDA (Pichada, Dalit, Alpsankhayk) plank in the elections.
