By IANS
Etawah (Uttar Pradesh) : The United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) Monday declared Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav would be the combine’s “future leader in parliament” and said it would capture 100 seats in the next general elections.
At its first major rally in Uttar Pradesh, the UNPA saw its top rung leaders converging at Etawah, the home turf of Mulayam Singh, to formally declare the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister as their “future leader in parliament too”.
The figure of 100 seats was given by Mulayam Singh himself and he also predicted that “the formation of India’s next government will be determined by the UNPA”.
Assuring his comrade-in-arms Om Prakash Chautala (Haryana – Indian National Lok Dal) Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh – Telugu Desam Party) and Babu Lal Marandi (Jharkhand) of winning a large chunk of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, Mulayam Singh said: “I am confident that with the support of more leaders from other states, we should be able to put up a tally of 100 seats that will give us the strength to determine the course of the country’s political destiny.”
UNPA ally, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, was unable to attend due to the death of a relative.
Samajwadi Party national general secretary Amar Singh too could not attend on account of his father’s death.
Both Chautala and Naidu projected Mulayam Singh as their leader, “under whose leadership we will form the next government in Delhi”.
Almost spelling out their strategy, the leaders made it loud and clear that farmers would remain on top of their agenda. “We are the only political combine genuinely concerned about the well being of farmers. Other political parties have begun to talk about farmers only because of us,” remarked Chautala.
Naidu trained his guns at the United Progressive Alliance government and condemned it as “anti-farmer”. He cited the government’s policy with respect to rice procurement as a glaring example in this regard.
“While the government was willing to import rice at the rate of Rs.2,200 per quintal, it was not willing to pay more than Rs.750 a quintal as support price to the farmers for their produce,” he pointed out.
“Once we have our government under Mulayam Singh Yadav’s leadership, we would say goodbye to the present plight of farmers,” he added.