Prayagraj:
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav asserted on Sunday that the opposition INDIA coalition will continue in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
He attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging it was trying to grab land like the mafia through the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.
Addressing a press conference, Mr Yadav said that the “PDA (Backward, Dalits, and Minorities) would uproot the BJP” from the state in the 2027 assembly elections.
When asked about the INDIA bloc, he reiterated, “INDIA alliance is (present) and will remain”, dispelling doubts about the fate of the alliance formed ahead of the 2024 general elections.
“The BJP has brought the Waqf Amendment Bill so that it can snatch away land. Wherever they see land, they occupy it,” he said and called the BJP “land mafia party”.
He accused the ruling party of “snatching” people’s money through demonetisation and GST and of diminishing reservation rights.
Mr Yadav also criticised the BJP’s handling of the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, promising an investigation into “mismanagement” if his party comes to power.
The SP chief claimed the government provided inaccurate figures regarding casualties and financial gains during the event, and alleged that drones and CCTV surveillance failed during the January stampede.
“When drones and CCTVs were needed the most (at the time of the stampede), they were either closed or were shut down,” he claimed.
Mr Yadav also accused the government of pressuring the relatives of stampede victims to change the cause of death.
Regarding SP MP Ramji Lal Suman’s controversial statement on Rana Sanga, Mr Yadav said, “The history which shows each other as superior and inferior, the history which stops our progress, that history should be allowed to remain.”
Mr Yadav provided journalists with a booklet of his suggestions for the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh 2025, originally posted on social media, and a Harvard University study on the 2013 Prayagraj Kumbh Mela.
He was in Prayagraj to attend the wedding of SP state president Shyam Lal Pal’s daughter.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
