Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.
Credit: X/@samajwadiparty
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday slammed the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh for the “injustice” meted out to women and termed the Ujjain incident involving the rape of a 12-year-old girl “beyond imagination.”
The girl, who was raped and found bleeding on a street in MP’s Ujjain city, was on Wednesday operated upon by a team of specialist doctors and her condition is critical but stable, an official has said. The assault on the minor has sparked massive public outrage.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also said his party would filed candidates in the year-end Assembly polls with the aim of defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party had won from Bijawar seat in Chhatarpur in the 2018 polls but the MLA, Rajesh Shukla, later switched sides and joined the BJP.
"Despite BJP being in power (in MP) for nearly 20 years and at the Centre for 10 years, Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of cases of injustice and atrocities against women in the country. This is not the figure of the Samajwadi Party, but that of NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau),” said Yadav.
The former UP chief minister arrived here on Wednesday to take part in a rally at Sirmaur in Rewa district in favour of his party candidate Laxman Tiwari.
"Can anybody imagine that in a state where 1.2 crore women are associated with the Ladli (Behna) scheme, there is an incident with a 12-year-old girl (referring to the Ujjain rape incident)…such a situation is prevailing,” Yadav told reporters in Khajuraho.
The MP government has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the Ujjain incident and a suspect has been detained, state home minister Narottam Mishra said on Wednesday.
There is an atmosphere of insecurity among the women in the state despite the BJP being in power for 20 years in MP and for 10 years at the Centre, Yadav said.
Referring to the passage of the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ (women’s reservation bill), which makes a provision for 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and assemblies, Yadav said nobody knows when it will be implemented.
But if the BJP is serious about it, the party should field 33 per cent women workers in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha (assembly) polls, he said. The lists declared so far by the BJP do not reflect that provision, said the SP president.
Yadav said his party will consider fielding women in 20 per cent seats in these elections, adding that SP was in favour of OBC quota.
Asserting there is room for the SP in MP since the BJP had done nothing during its 18-year rule, Yadav said, "We are going to field candidates on seats from where those BJP leaders are contesting who campaigned in UP and contributed in the defeat of SP nominees," he told reporters in Khajuraho.
"We are going to field candidates on seats where we have a good chance of winning and also of ensuring the defeat of the BJP. The ruling BJP has done nothing but their advertisements show everything is hunky-dory in the state," he added.
About a question on the opposition grouping ‘INDIA’, Yadav said the SP is a part of it but will contest in the states where it is strong and in a position to stop the BJP from marching ahead.
He said that his party’s strategy is to work for the welfare of the “PDA”, or “Pichde (backward class), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities)”, and added that if the party continues to work on this strategy, then it will witness a big change in Madhya Pradesh.
Yadav also said that his party’s candidates have been winning in different parts of the state for a long time and have a strong presence in Madhya Pradesh.