Federal front can become a reality, Congress should help: Akhilesh Yadav

Yadav at his Lucknow office and spoke about the prospects of this gathbandhan and whether the Congress could be a part of it in the future

You have been described as the initiator and the pivot of the UP gathbandhan. What were your compulsions in putting the coalition together?

Trust me, there were no compulsions. I am fighting to keep democracy. For the past five years, democratic institutions have been attacked. Of course, earlier the Congress governments did it, and now the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  The BJP showed many dreams in the name of acche din (good days) but these have not been realised. Our economic growth has been hit, the country has regressed.  If I fight for growth, the BJP brands me as a backward who has no business to speak on economic issues. 

On November 8 (2016, when bank notes were demonetised), I stated it will not help because rupee can’t change its colour, the system has to change its colour. I stand by it.  People who lined up for hours, even days, before banks lost their lives but the Centre wasn’t remorseful. Traders were ruined. Where are the jobs?  The next government has a tough task on hand -- putting the economy back on track. 

Yet, the BJP is confident of returning, of even repeating its previous Lok Sabha showing in UP....

Forget the BJP, I don’t know how some political experts are saying they will return with 74 seats, one more than what they got in 2014. The UP government has done nothing but shilanyas on top of an earlier shilanyas (foundation-laying). This is unprecedented in the world. Our chief minister and prime minister are re-inaugurating the projects I started. At least change some technical details to keep UP’s izzat after it gave you so many MPs. 

How was your first meeting with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati? What was the ice-breaker?

It was very good because our goals are the same.

Unlike your father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who worked with Mayawati for some time in a coalition government, you hardly knew her until now...

That’s not true. I know her as much as Netaji (Mulayam). She and I were MPs around the same time. I always respected her.

The SP-BSP relations were terribly bitter. Did she ever bring up the State Guest House incident (of June 2, 1995) when she was attacked by your party workers?

No, never.

Was Mayawati different from how you’d imagined her to be?

Not at all. She’s as committed to upholding democracy as I am, she is as committed to our alliance as I am. It was a good political decision on her part and the country has welcomed it. Both of us felt the people’s pulse and responded accordingly. 

What is the USP of your gathbandhan? The BJP is still strong in UP, the upper castes are rallying around it..

The USP is, both of us are pro-development, pro-growth and pro-infrastructure. How can the BJP dub us as backward? Don’t the backward castes use the metro rail? Are there separate seating arrangements for the backward castes? I don’t have to prove my commitment to growth to the BJP or anyone.  Take the Delhi-Lucknow Expressway. I completed 340 km in my time, the BJP added only 160 km. Yet the BJP claimed ownership over the project. 

But you must have had to convince your party workers who’ve fought the BSP for many years. Wasn’t that tough?

The leaders and party workers think alike about the alliance on both sides.  When the SP and BSP fought the Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-polls together (March 2018), our workers from the neighbouring districts came out in strength to make our candidates win. If the workers were upset about my understanding with the BSP, would they come out?  When we nominated a person from the Nishad party in Gorakhpur, my only condition was he should fight on the SP’s symbol. Things always fall in place. In the Kairana by-poll (May 2018), I told Jayant (the RLD leader), field my candidate on your symbol and he agreed. Together, we gave the first Muslim woman MP (Tabassum Hasan) from UP to the Lok Sabha in a long time. If the leaders work together, the workers get the message and there’s no bitterness on the ground. This is the way we will win the elections. 

   

Why didn’t you want the Congress in your gathbandhan?

We have left two seats (Amethi and Rae Bareli) for Congress. Congress should help us in the other seats. That’s the meaning of a mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). 

The Congress can take away your votes, those of the minorities....

Congress should think in the country’s interest and decide who they want to help, the BJP or our alliance.

But there’s still an element of distrust among Muslims towards Mayawati because of her past dealings with the BJP.

This is BJP’s disinformation. Now SP and BSP are seen on the same platform, so how can anyone distrust BSP? And she (Mayawati) has sacrificed so many seats to save democracy from the BJP. 

In the presser you addressed with Mayawati, you diplomatically parried a question on whether you want to see Mayawati as the next PM.

The PM can be from anywhere. But I will be happiest if the PM is from UP. UP is spearheading the battle to stop the BJP from coming to power so the next PM must be from UP. 

Do you think the “federal front” is becoming a reality?

Change is necessary. Since Independence, for a long time, there was a one pit latrine. May be under the BJP you have a two pit latrine. But the Congress and the BJP could never install water tanks and flushes for the poor. So I am saying, you just cannot have two poles, the Congress and the BJP, and keep the poor in thrall to them. To give you another example. When I was the CM, the Centre never released enough funds to complete the GT Road from Araul (Kanpur district) to Champaran. 

Had the project been given to me, I would have completed it. This is why a central government consisting of regional parties will work better for the individual states. The regional parties are doing good work, Mamata ji (Banerjee), KCR, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, I, ran good schemes. A federal front can become a reality but the Congress should help.