Samajwadi Party (SP) National president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged that all BJP leaders including the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister begin and end their talks with a lie.
Mr Yadav's statement came after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed a rally in Azamgarh, where he alleged that Mr Yadav betrayed people of Azamgarh and obstructed its development and supported criminals.
The Chief Minister also spoke about foundation laying and later inauguration of Purvanchal expressway for the people of Azamgarh.
Mr Yadav, in his turn, claimed credit for construction of Agra-Lucknow Expressway, and another project to connect Azamgarh with the state and national capital.
"It is well known that the Samajwadi Party government has constructed the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and in its sequel, Azamgarh will be replaced by the state capital Lucknow and had laid the foundation of the Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway to connect Azamgarh with Lucknow and New Delhi." Mr Yadav said in a statement issued in Lucknow.
Yadav claimed that land acquisition for the expressway was done under the SP rule and alignment was decided, but BJP stopped its work and changed the name.
"Samajwadis (socialists) always worked for the development of Azamgarh and entire Purvanchal (East UP) region," he said.
"BJP always ignored Azamgarh and defamed it. The BJP is still betraying people. Its leaders including UP Chief Minister start and end their talks with a lie," he said, adding that people of Azamgarh have always rejected BJP's communalism and anti-development approach.
Mr Yadav said that the entire state and country is suffering because of the "anti-people" and "wrong policies" of the BJP government.
"Farmers, youths, traders -- all are angry with the BJP government. State is facing inflation, unemployment and rising incidents of crime," he added.
Azamgarh is up for Lok sabha bypoll on June 23. The bypoll were necessitated after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was the sitting Lok Sabha MP, resigned and contested the 2022 UP Assembly elections from Karhal in Mainpuri, and won it.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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