Not in race for PM post, want to make the Prime Minister: Akhilesh

Speaking at the India Today Conclave here, Akhilesh said that India would have a new prime minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"The BJP would be thrown out of power because it has not done any work on the ground," he said.

Asked who he felt would be the Prime Minister, Akhilesh said,'I do not want to become the prime minister. I want to make the prime minister.'

Speaking at a session titled 'Fight Club: The Crucial Battle for UP', the SP leader said his party's alliance with BSP was a fight to protect the Constitution.

"This is a fight to protect the Constitution. It's an assimilation of ideas. If Ram Manohar Lohia and B R Ambedkar could resolve to work together, why can't SP and BSP work together? It's not out of fear of Modi,'he said.

On Mulayam Singh Yadav's praise of PM Modi in Parliament and blessing him to be PM again,he said "netaji had praised and blessed Dr Manmohan Singh also in Parliament. Did he come back? I know best what Netaji's blessings mean."

Speaking during the valedictory session of the Lok Sabha, Mulayam Singh said, 'I wish that PM Modi, you should become the prime minister again. I have experienced that whenever I met you, you got my work done instantly.'

Asked about the SP and BSP alliance with Congress in the Lok Sabha elections , he said, 'the BSP, Congress and other regional parties are with us in this grand alliance. This is a grand alliance and Rahul Gandhi is with us. Uttar Pradesh likes the Hand and the Elephant."

On BJP's allegation that coming together of all the Opposition parties against BJP is an act of grand adulteration, Akhikesh said, 'You are doing adulteration from Tamil Nadu to Northeast. We are doing adulteration only in Uttar Pradesh."

Asked if he felt that post Pulwama terror attack and India's subsequent aerial strike , BJP has advantage in the elections, Akhikesh said, 'Issues are the same on the ground. The country is hurt. The people are united in whatever has happened since Pulwama. But look at what's happening to farmers. People are getting 5 kg fewer fertilisers. The government did not buy potato from a single farmer as promised before the elections.

The government did not give MSP to sugarcane farmers. The current CM has stopped construction of several godowns the SP had started. The only work that the CM has allowed to continue is Baba Ramdev’s food park for which the SP government has allotted 500 acres of land. "

He criticised the Yogi Adityanath government of not giving the same amount to the martyrs' families as other state governments have given.

"Other states have contributed Rs 1 crore to the families of those CRPF soldiers who died in Pulwama. But Uttar Pradesh government, which boasts of presenting the biggest budget among all states, could not give the same amount to the martyrs' families. What's the point of having a big budget if we cannot take care of martyrs' families?,'he said.