Akhilesh govt embezzled welfare scheme funds during its tenure: Nadda

BJP president J P Nadda on Monday accused the previous Samajwadi Party government of misappropriating funds for various welfare schemes, claiming that the same money is now reaching beneficiaries' accounts directly under the Yogi Adityanath regime.

Addressing a rally here to mark the conclusion of the BJP's poll campaign tours -- Jan Vishvas Yatra -- launched last month, Nadda also took pride over the advancement of "cultural nationalism" by his party, forcing its opponents to follow suit.

The people who did not know the meaning of aachman' -- a Hindus' ritual of purification by sprinkling pious water -- and how to drink charnamrit' -- the water turned into ambrosia' after the ablution of a deity's feet with it -- have now begun ringing bells in temples and boasting of sandalwood paste on their foreheads, he said.

Hurling his allegation of embezzlement of welfare scheme funds during the tenure of the previous SP government, Nadda said, The difference is now clear in UP. The money of the (various) schemes, now directly goes to the accounts of people. At the time of Akhilesh Yadav government, money used to go for his (Akhilesh) consumption."

"The Akhilesh Yadav government had promised to give laptops to youths. For this, 15 lakh laptops were purchased but only 6.25 lakh were distributed, he said and asked, Where did the rest of the laptops go?

The Yogi government has given one lakh laptops and smartphones to youths. One crore youths will be given laptops and smartphones in future, he said.

Accusing the previous SP government of being sympathetic to terrorists and criminals, Nadda said, Akhilesh ji had withdrawn cases to save 15 terrorists. But the court did not allow it. And four of them were given death sentences the rest life imprisonments later.

Do you need a government which protects terrorists?" he asked people in the rally, evoking an emphatic no from them.

With the upcoming assembly elections to be held amid the lingering farmers' resentment over the now-repealed three central farm laws, Nadda also accused both the previous SP and BSP governments of being indifferent to the plight of farmers, including those cultivating sugarcanes.

The Adityanath government alone paid a sum of Rs 1.40 lakh crore to sugarcane farmers while under Mayawati's rule, 21 sugar mills were sold at throwaway prices and 18 were shut down, he claimed.

In the Akhilesh Yadav regime, 11 sugar mills were shut down while the Yogi government started three new sugar mills and brought up the number of running sugar mills to 54," he added.

Claiming the BJP to be a unifying force amid the opposition's alleged divisive agenda through the vote bank politics of appeasement, Nadda said his party talks of inclusive growth but the opposition evokes Mohammad Ali Jinnah's name to further their agenda.

"Those indulging in the vote bank politics are in disarray today. It is because Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ended it and has kicked off the politics of development. Casteism, regionalism, dynastic rule and appeasement have collapsed now," Nadda said.

Nadda made the remarks while addressing one of the two rallies to mark the conclusion of the party's Jan Vishvas Yatra which was flagged on December 20 by a galaxy of six senior BJP leaders from six different places in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP poll campaign tours were to reach out to the people in all 403 assembly constituencies of the state and win their trust ahead of the upcoming polls.

After crisscrossing the state for around a fortnight, all six streams of the tour are culminating at various places of the state now.

The BJP had set off its poll campaign tours in a replication of its Parivartan Yatra ahead of the 2017 UP assembly polls in which it and its allies had won 325 seats.