INDIA bloc will win all 27 UP seats in 6th and 7th phase of LS polls: Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow, May 24 (PTI) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav Friday said opposition INDIA bloc is going to win all the 27 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh that are going to poll in the sixth and seventh phases of elections.

In a statement issued in Lucknow on the eve of the polling in the sixth phase on Saturday, he said the BJP's "farewell" in Uttar Pradesh is certain in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

He claimed the BJP's graph has gone downwards in the five phases of polls held so far and the party will be completely wiped out from Purvanchal, the eastern region of Uttar Pradesh.

"The manner in which the Samajwadi-PDA family, along with the INDIA bloc, is destroying the BJP, clearly shows that the INDIA alliance is going to create history by winning 27 out of the 27 Lok Sabha seats in the sixth and seventh phases of elections (in UP)," he said.

The sixth phase of elections will cover 14 seats: Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phoolpur, Allahabad, Ambedkarnagar, Shravasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj (SC), Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr and Bhadohi.

Voting in the sixth phase will be held on May 25.

The seventh and final phase of polling will be held on June 1, and among the seats it will cover are Varanasi -- represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- and Gorakhpur, the pocket borough of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The other constituencies that will go to polls in the seventh phase are Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon (SC), Ghosi, Salempur, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Mirzapur and Robertsganj (SC).

The counting of votes will be held on June 4.

Yadav said that ever since the Congress and Samajwadi Party have joined hands under the INDIA bloc, the double-engines -- the BJP governments at Delhi and Lucknow -- have started colliding with each other.

The voters are fed up with rising inflation, corruption, injustice and atrocities, and are voting to wipe out the BJP, he said. "The public has decided that this time they will not allow BJP to come to power again." Yadav also said that while this Lok Sabha election is for changing the government, it is also an election to save the Constitution and democracy.

"This opportunity is not going to come again," he said, appealing to the voters to give all the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh to the INDIA bloc, reducing the BJP to zero. "Don't miss this opportunity to save the Constitution and democracy." Under the BJP government, he claimed, the country's borders are not safe and conspiracies are being hatched to divide society.

"Reservation given in the Constitution of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar is being abolished. Democracy and Constitution face the biggest threat under the BJP government," Yadav claimed.

He said the government is playing with the future of youths through question paper leaks and exam cancellation.

"Almost 30 lakh posts are lying vacant, but the BJP government is not recruiting," he said.

He also said the poor have become poorer under the BJP government, while big industrialists have been given loans again after waiving off their previous loans worth Rs 25 lakh crore.

"During the BJP government, many big businessmen fled abroad after taking loans from banks. Till date, they have not been brought to justice. On the contrary, the BJP is harassing opposition leaders by putting ED, CBI and Income Tax behind them. They are being harassed and insulted," Yadav said in the statement. PTI