Apparently rattled by the huge turnout in the farmers' rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bareilly, the Samajwadi Party accused the PM of misleading the farmers by repeating the 'same old false promises' as made ahead of the 2014 lok Sabha polls.
The Samajwadi Party maintained that the PM will never succeed in his mission of befooling the farmers as they are aware of the credentials of political leaders of UP. The party said that Akhilesh Yadav has strengthened the agri-economy of the state by following the path shown by Choudhary Charan Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Questioning the PM's pro-farmer credentials, the SP said that it was a 'sudden development' as he had never shown any inclination concern towards agriculture and farmers.
SP spokesman Rajendra Choudhary said in lucknow on Sunday that the impact of the weather change is also visible in politics as people having no concern for farmers have developed nascent sympathy for them.
"The sympathy of the BJP-led Union government was missing when farmers of UP suffered huge losses due to unseasonal rains in March last year. Despite reminders by CM Akhilesh Yadav, the Centre did not sanction a penny as compensation. The Centre agreed to provide some assistance even as the UP government paid twice the amount of loss suffered," said Chaudhary.
The SP leader said that the UP government has demonstrated its priority by declaring the 2016-17 fiscal as 'year of farmers'. "Besides giving special package for drought-hit Bundelkhand, the SP government has also funded projects for construction of check dams and ponds," said he.
Chaudhary claimed that the UP government has allocated 80 per cent of its budget for agriculture, waived off agri-loans upto Rs 50,000, provided free irrigation and accident insurance of Rs 5 lakh.
The SP leader said that hailing from a farming background, the CM is aware of their problems and sensitive towards them. "The people of the state won’t be swayed by gimmicks of the Opposition parties and would remain with the SP," he stressed.
