BJP's film flopped on opening day Akhilesh after phase 1 of LS polls

    Meerut/Amroha (UP), Apr 20 (PTI) Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said the first phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls has changed the atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP's "film has flopped" on the opening day itself.
    Eight western Uttar Pradesh constituencies went to polls in the first phase on Friday.
    Addressing a rally in Meerut to garner support for the SP and INDIA opposition bloc candidate Sunita Verma, Yadav said, "The direction of the wind has changed. It is not only that their (BJP's) film has flopped but also, no one wants to listen to their often-repeated stories. No one wants to give their vote to them."
    Describing Meerut as the "land of revolutionaries", the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister urged people to help the country achieve "freedom from the BJP".
    Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantees, Yadav termed those a new fraud against the public.
    "The new guarantees are fraudulent and everyone should be wary of those. Those are not guarantees but 'ghanti'. We believe in the big guarantee of the Constitution given by B R Ambedkar. We want that guarantee which gives us honour, jobs, reservation," he said.
    Yadav said the "guarantees" given by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its Lok Sabha poll manifesto, including doubling the farmers' income and two crore jobs, are nothing but empty rhetoric.
    He asserted that the ongoing election is for protecting the Constitution and democracy.
    Later, addressing a rally in Amroha where he shared the dais with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the SP chief said, "People have overturned the BJP in the very first phase (of the polls). I want to tell those who used to say that the film of others is not working that the BJP's show was a flop on the very first day itself. No one wants to listen to their false stories. Their cliched dialogues are not popular with the public anymore.
    "When the public bids farewell, it bids farewell with drums. This time, the BJP's farewell will take place with drums of Amroha being played. Those who came up with slogans, who said the farmers' income will be doubled, who did not fulfil even a single promise, their departure is certain."
    Yadav said the BJP is the epicentre of corruption and added that the saffron party does not want to talk about electoral bonds, through which, he alleged, it extorted money using the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and income-tax department.
    On the issue of question paper leaks in government exams, he said 60 lakh youngsters in Uttar Pradesh have been cheated and "even if you add three votes from the house of one youngster, the BJP will lose 1.8 crore votes in Uttar Pradesh this time".
    "Today, the biggest warehouse of corrupt people and mafia dons is the BJP. All the corrupt people are in that party and all the mafia dons of Uttar Pradesh are also with them.
    "We think of the future but the BJP indulges in negative politics. I appeal to everyone to keep an eye on the polling booths and finish the BJP's game," the SP chief said.
    "Those associated with the BJP have come here after 10 years. Must we not hold them accountable for all these years? Farmers are dejected. They were forced to go through a lot of problems. They agitated in Delhi and subsequently, the three black (central farm) laws had to be withdrawn," he added.
    Yadav said if the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) of opposition parties comes to power, it will ensure that farmers get a minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.
    Voting in the second phase of the election will take place on April 26, covering eight parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh -- Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr (reserved for Scheduled Castes), Aligarh and Mathura.
    The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)