Akhilesh-Jayant focus on farmers' issues, unemployment to blunt BJP's polarisation bid in western UP

In what appears to be a strategic move to polarise the forthcoming assembly polls, especially in the Jat-dominated western Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary have been harping on the issues concerning farmers besides unemployment and price rise during their campaign in the region.

The two leaders, who have joined hands along with some others including Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader Om Prakash Rajbhar and Apna Dal's Krishna Patel, have also in a carefully crafted electoral strategy, avoided reacting to the BJP leaders' 'Hindutva' outbursts and their attempts to rake up the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots.

The focus of Akhilesh and Jayant remained the Minimum Support Price (MSP), non-payment of sugarcane arrears, problems faced by potato farmers besides unemployment and rising prices of fuel and gas cylinders.

''Farmers are forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices. Potato farmers are also facing problems in storing the produce as there are not enough cold storages,'' Akhilesh said while addressing a press conference in Agra on Friday.

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The two leaders also said that the youths of the state were not getting employment and also referred to the leakage of question papers of competitive examinations. ''This government orders lathi charge on the students who seek jobs,'' Jayant said.

In their earlier interactions with the press and also while addressing election meetings, the duo is sticking to farmers' issues and avoiding responding to the 'Hindutva' barbs of the saffron party leaders.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath have been raking up the Muzaffarnagar communal riots, firing on the karsevaks in Ayodhya and Ram Temple and Mathura issues in their election rallies.

''It appears to be a well-devised electoral strategy and its main objective appears to be to blunt efforts to polarise the polls along religious lines in western UP region,'' said a Lucknow-based political analyst.

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Meerut-based scribe Gurubachan Singh said that issues concerning the farmers, unemployment and price rise appear to be clicking well with the youths and farmers. ''The kind of crowd seen in the joint roadshows of Akhilesh and Jayant in Ghaziabad and other areas is reflective of the support the two leaders are getting in the region. Both SP and RLD workers remained on the road till the evening long after their leaders had gone,'' Singh said.

Singh, who hails from the Jat community, said that at many places the residents of the villages had started questioning the ruling party candidates about rising prices and unemployment.

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