Akhilesh Yadav to embark on 'Vijay Yatra' from Oct 12; To field popular faces in UP polls

To bolster prospects of Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, former CM Akhilesh Yadav will embark on the 'Samajwadi Vijay Yatra' from October 12. As a part of this public outreach programme, he is likely to tour all 75 districts of the state. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, October 5, Yadav said, "We are again getting an opportunity to hold rath yatra and this time, it is a 'Vijay Yatra' of Samajwadi Party. As people of Uttar Pradesh are disappointed with the BJP government". 

In 2011, Yadav had gone on a similar yatra a year before SP came to power in Uttar Pradesh. The SP president added, "We will field popular faces in the upcoming Assembly elections. We are working on it and will announce the names of the candidates as soon as the election dates are out". Weighing in on the Lakhimpur-Kheri violence, he appealed to farmers to reject BJP in the 2022 UP polls. 

UP polls

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, BJP won a whopping 312 seats in the 403-member House, whereas BSP could win only 19 seats. On the other hand, the SP-Congress alliance failed to bear fruit as it could win in only 54 constituencies. While this was seen as a mandate for PM Modi as BJP had not declared any CM candidate, Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath was a surprise pick for the post. Though some BJP leaders made conflicting statements over Adityanath's future as the Chief Minister, PM Modi put rest to all speculations by lauding UP's governance model during his successive visits to the state.

For the 2022 UP election, Akhilesh Yadav has exuded confidence in winning more than 400 seats owing to the alleged misgovernance of the state government. While he has ruled out forging an alliance with Congress and BSP, the SP president has remained non-committal about an electoral adjustment with his uncle. So far, SP has forged an alliance with Mahan Dal and Rashtriya Lok Dal.

On October 3, Yadav peddled a conspiracy theory pertaining to the farm laws. Referring to the Centre's demonetisation move in November 2016 which was perceived to have played a key role in the saffron party's 2017 election win, he said, "BJP can hatch any conspiracy. It is possible that they might withdraw the three black farm laws before the election and implement them on farmer again".