Summary:
New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) Undaunted by the prospect of taking on Yogi Adiyanath in his stronghold, Azad Samaj Party president Chandra Shekhar Aazad says the people of Gorakhpur will repeat the history of 1971 when a chief minister of Uttar Pradesh lost elections from the assembly constituency.Confident that victory will be his, Aazad, whose party is heading the Samajik Parivartan Morcha of 36 small outfits, also pitched himself as a chief ministerial candidate from the alliance that is contesting 403 seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls beginning next month."We need to go back to the history of Gorakhpur… In 1971, a sitting chief minister, T N Singh, was defeated by the people of Gorakhpur.
Similarly, Adityanath is the CM now and is responsible for the destruction of UP and Gorakhpur in the last five years," Aazad, who is popularly called "Ravan", told PTI.After talks of an alliance with the Samajwadi Party failed, the Azad Samaj Party (ASP) decided to forge a coalition of small parties based on its not-so-good experiences with big and established parties."I wanted to forge an alliance (with SP) to stop the BJP so that there is no division between opposition.
When they did not want to give us our share, we refused," Aazad said.He also rejected allegations of being a vote cutter and cleared the air about his fallout with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party."I am saying SP is also doing its job and so are we.
I have no problem with the SP," said the 36-year-old who has emerged as a prominent Dalit face.On being dubbed a "vote cutter" party by some quarters, Aazad retorted, "Who stood up for the youth when ‘lathis’ rained on them for seeking employment, when injustice was done against sisters….
who raised real issues of the people?" According to him, people in Uttar Pradesh saw the SP rule from 2012 to 2017 and the BJP from 2017 to 2022.
“After being disappointed with the SP government, people voted for BJP.