UP Election 2022: RLD Chief Announces Alliance With SP, Says BJP's Politics Of Hatred Will Be Rejected

While the Centre informed Parliament that it had no record of the farmers who had died during the protests, the Opposition and farmer leaders have claimed more than 700 peasants died.

Rashtriya Lok Dal President Jayant Chaudhary And SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav. (File Photo)

New Delhi: Ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election, Rashtriya Lok Dal president Jayant Chaudhary formally declared his party's alliance with the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday. Jayant Chaudhary said if they come to power in Uttar Pradesh next year, the first project will be to create a memorial for "martyrs" of the farmers' protest.

While the Centre informed Parliament that it had no record of the farmers who had died during the protests, the Opposition and farmer leaders have claimed more than 700 peasants died.

"The BJP will get a befitting reply from the people in the Uttar Pradesh polls next year as they have understood its politics of hatred," the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief said while addressing a rally along with Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav in Meerut.

Chaudhary slammed the Yogi Adityanath-led government for the recent leak of a government competitive examination question paper and subsequent cancellation of the test.

"As a result of such instances, young people are not receiving jobs and are forced to travel and work elsewhere," PTI quoted Chaudhary as saying.

Speaking on the RLD-SP alliance, Chaudhary said, "Akhilesh ji and I are together. The first work our double-engine government will do is to construct a memorial for martyr farmers, who died during farmers' protest here in the land of Chowdhury Charan Singh." 

'Babaji Begins With Aurangzeb & Ends With Kairana Exodus'

Training his guns on Adityanath, Chaudhary said "our Babaji (Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath) begins with Aurangzeb and concludes with the Kairana exodus".

Ahead of the 2017 UP polls, BJP stated that many Hindu families had fled Kairana town due to rising crime. Some political groups have disputed the claim of migration.

"Babaji becomes angry very fast. You have never seen him smiling. He smiles only when he is with 'bacchde' (calves). I ask you people to free him so that he can play with his calves for 24 hours. He cannot handle government files," he said.

Farmers Agitation & Lakhimpur Kheri Violence

Referring to the repeal of the three farm laws, the RLD leader said, "I appreciate farmers for winning a big battle and forcing (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji, probably for the first time, to bow before them."

"In Lakhimpur Kheri farmers were crushed. Over 700 of them died during the agitation (against the laws)," he said. On October 3, eight people were killed in violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, including four farmers and two BJP supporters.

Chaudhary urged people to attend another march in Aligarh on December 23, 2021, on Kisan Diwas.

(With inputs from PTI)