Issue not cap colour, but how BJP tackles inflation, unemployment: Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent 'red cap' remark saying that the issue is not the colour of the cap but how the BJP will tackle inflation, unemployment and hunger.

Addressing a press conference, Yadav said, "The question is not of the colour of the cap, but whether the BJP wants to address inflation, unemployment and hunger issues. When will the government with double engine make the road connecting Uttar Pradesh with Nepal?"

In a veiled attack on Samajwadi Party, Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday termed those with 'red caps' as red alert for Uttar Pradesh and said that they want to form the government in the state to show mercy to terrorists and set them free. "Today, the entire Uttar Pradesh knows well that those with red caps have been concerned with the red beacon, not with your miseries. Red caps people need power, for scams, to fill their coffers, for illegal occupations, and to give free hand to the mafia," PM Modi had said while addressing an event.

 

Red cap is used as a symbolic gesture of Samajwadi Party workers and leaders.

Slamming the BJP government in the state, Yadav said, "Today BJP wants to rule by intimidating and killing people like the British did. In the coming times, the public will work to teach a lesson to the BJP. Nowadays, CM is giving advertisements for giving tablets, smartphones in the newspapers. Which tablet were you (BJP government) giving for four and a half years?"

"This is a discriminatory government. When the Ambedkarites and the socialists sit together, the BJP is sure to be eliminated from Uttar Pradesh. There are many such incidents in UP that are questionable," SP chief said.

Lauding the party's efforts and future plans, Yadav said, "If the Samajwadi government is formed, then work will be done here to conduct all those examinations whose papers have been leaked and work will be done to give all the jobs which have not been given."

Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to go for Assembly polls in 2022.

Previously, in the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 312 seats out of the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly while Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won 19 and Congress could manage to win only seven seats. The rest of the seats were bagged by other candidates.