Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said that Maharashtra has emerged as a "bigger laboratory" for the BJP after Madhya Pradesh and the saffron party will do other "new experiments" in the run-up to 2024 general elections to stay in power.
Akhilesh Yadav was reacting to developments in Maharashtra where after NCP leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, "BJP does this from time to time. First they did this in Madhya Pradesh, and then in Maharashtra, but people are watching this," Yadav told reporters at the SP office in Lucknow.
"Madhya Pradesh was earlier a laboratory of the BJP. Maharashtra has become a bigger laboratory than that. You will see that by the time the (2024) Lok Sabha polls come, the BJP will be doing a number of new experiments, because it has to stay in power," Mr Yadav said.
In March 2020, a section of Congress MLAs and ministers loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia revolted against the party leadership, bringing down the Kamal Nath-led government. Jyotiraditya Scindia left the Congress and joined the BJP.
Mr Yadav alleged that the BJP's main concern was to stay in power and not the welfare of the downtrodden.
"The poor, farmers, 'bahujan', oppressed may not get any place, but they (BJP) should get a place of power," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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