"Election is about protecting Constitution," says Akhilesh Yadav

Akhilesh Yadav. Pic/PTI

Amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday launched a scathing attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the issues of inflation and unemployment saying that BJP has failed on most of the promises they made.

"People are angry because BJP did not fulfil any promises it made. Inflation and unemployment are at an all-time high. This election is not about Hindu-Muslim or India-Pakistan, but it is about protecting the Constitution. They are no longer raising the '400 paar' slogan," said the SP chief while speaking to the reporters in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur.

Yadav further accused the BJP of snatching away reservations from the marginalised communities and said, "Earlier, backward classes, Dalit and Adivasis were part of the General category as well. But BJP has tied these three classes into their category... If the minorities are well educated, they will get more jobs in the 40% block reserved for the General category..."

It is noteworthy that the electoral battle in Jaunpur has witnessed many twists and turns and has become a three-cornered fight between the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, and the BSP, which changed its candidate at the last minute.

Jaunpur is considered to be a Yadav-dominated seat, and the community is the traditional vote bank of the Samajwadi Party. In 2019, Yadavs had consolidated behind the SP-BSP candidate Shyam Singh Yadav, ensuring his victory.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Jaunpur seat went to the Bahujan Samaj Party's Shyam Singh Yadav, who contested the election under the SP-BSP alliance. Yadav won the 2019 elections by a margin of 80,936 votes. BJP's Krishna Pratap Singh was the first runner-up, followed by Congress's Deo Vrat Mishra.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Krishna Pratap from the BJP won the polls with a margin of 1,46,310 votes.

Notably, Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum number of MPs, 80, to Parliament, is voting in all seven phases. In the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 25, voting will take place in Bhadohi, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, and Machhlishahr.

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