Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav addresses a public meeting in support of party candidate RR Bansal ahead of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, in Tikamgarh on November 5, 2023.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday in Madhya Pradesh that the Congress is a “clever” party and it only wants to conduct a caste-based survey for votes.
Addressing an election rally in the poll-bound State’s Tikamgarh, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said, “We want to conduct a caste census. Now, the Congress has also started talking about the caste census because their own vote base has gone with the BJP. They are doing this to get that vote back.”
“We Samajwadi log [socialists] want to do caste census for your rights and respect,” he added.
Mr. Yadav has been launching attacks at SP’s INDIA bloc ally Congress ever since the talks of a possible alliance in the State election failed between the two parties. The SP has fielded more than 70 candidates across the State.
Mr. Yadav asked the voters in Tikamgarh to not vote for the BJP and the Congress.
“The Congress is a very clever party. Will you be wary of them or not?,” he said.
Mr. Yadav also said, “People who are around 80 years of age sometimes might not recognise [us] properly. It is our mistake that we trusted 80-year-old people thinking that they would recognise us.”
A bitter war of words had ensued between Mr. Yadav and 76-year-old M.P. Congress chief Kamal Nath after the failure of alliance talks and the SP leader had accused the Congress of “betrayal” after promising some seats. The development had led to speculations of a rift in the INDIA bloc.
Meanwhile, Congress national general secretary in-charge of communication Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday that the INDIA alliance is aimed at the Lok Sabha election.
“Keeping the Lok Sabha elections in mind, 27-28 parties decided on the INDIA alliance. But now we got busy in the elections in five States. Like our Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said, as soon as these elections end, we’ll get back to making the alliance stronger,” he said, speaking to the media in Bhopal.
“But you must remember one thing – the Congress party and the INDIA alliance are a democratic coalition. People talk in different voices. INDIA coalition plays the clarinet of democracy, while the BJP fires the cannon of ektantra (one system). This is the difference,” he said, responding to a question.
He said that the members of the coalition will naturally talk in different voices and that no efforts are being made to ensure that they talk in the same vein. “There are different parties and we have to form a consensus,” he added.