Akhilesh Yadav 'anti-Dalit, only wanted Dalit votes but did not want them with him': Chandrashekhar Azad 'Ravan'

Yadav says he offered him two seats, also takes a jibe at BJP’s decision to field Adityanath from Gorakhpur, says he has already been sent home

Akhilesh Yadav. PTI file

Tribune News Service

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 15

Political high drama continued in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh with Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ today claiming that Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav was only interested in Dalit votes but did not want them with him.

Azad said his party, the Azad Samaj Party, wanted to join the SP-led alliance to defeat the BJP. “After all the discussions, in the end, I felt that Akhilesh Yadav does not want Dalits in this alliance, he just wants Dalit vote bank. He humiliated the people of Bahujan Samaj, I tried hard but the alliance could not happen,” Azad said, adding that efforts are being made to form a third front of several opposition parties.

However, if that does not materialise, Azad Samaj will go alone, he said

“We thought this is a new Samajwadi Party and there will be some change in it…we can speak about social justice...we were banking on him (Akhilesh Yadav),” Azad said, following a meeting with Yadav

Akhilesh Yadav has stitched an alliance with several small caste-based parties, building his campaign on social justice for backward classes and Dalits. Azad said leaders of backward classes, Dalits and others are supporting Yadav with a belief that he will do social justice, “however, I believe that Akhilesh Yadav does not understand the meaning of social justice, it does not happen with words,” Azad said

Taking another dig, Azad said Yadav’s silence over the atrocities on Dalits shows that he is behaving like the BJP. “We have decided that we will not form an alliance with him,” he said.

Akhilesh Yadav, however, rubbished Azad’s claims, saying he had offered him two seats.

On Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath having food at a Dalit household yesterday, Azad said it was clear that he still considers “Dalits untouchable hence is trying to prove a point by going and eating there.

Why is he not having food at the home of a Brahmin or Thakur…he wants to prove a point that he is giving respect to them by having food with them”.

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