We gave laptops, people heard campaign speeches of Modi on that,we lost:Mulayam

Lucknow, 17 November 2014

In an embarrassment to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav blamed his free laptop scheme for the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.

Addressing the national convention of the party’s women’s wing, Mulayam Singh said he had always opposed the distribution of laptops to Class XII students.

“We distributed the laptops and people of the state heard the campaign speeches of Narendra Modi on these very laptops. They were impressed, and we lost the polls,” he said.

Even as he said all this, Kannauj MP and Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav was seated on the dias.

In the 2012 assembly elections, Akhilesh Yadav had promised free laptops to the students. The government has in the last two years distributed over 27 lakh laptops among students.

Akhilesh Yadav, however, claims that the laptop scheme as a major achievement of his government.

The scheme was shelved after the party was mauled in the Lok Sabha battle this year.

The Samajwadi Party had 22 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha but won from only five constituencies in the general election this year.

In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party won a staggering 71 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. Two other seats were won by an ally, the Apna Dal.

Mulayam Singh also took potshots at Modi’s ‘Swach Bharat’ drive.

“These campaigns have no meaning as long as there is poverty. Cleanliness if for the rich. If one has to seriously go on a cleanliness drive, he should think of cleaning up poverty.”

BJP will lose if regional parties unite: Mamata

New Delhi, 17 November

The BJP will lose future elections if regional parties come together, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee said Tuesday.

“The Congress committed mistakes because of which they were voted out of power. The BJP is ruling India with only 29 percent votes. They won because regional parties didn’t fight unitedly. If regional forces come together, the BJP will lose,” she said.

Banerjee also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was “trying to incite communal violence”.

Quizzed on leading an anti-communal front, Banerjee stressed there were others for the job but the alliance should be based on ideology.

“I am a small fry. I am a commoner. There are big people who can be leaders of a Federal Front. I support the idea of an anti-communal front. But there must be ideological alliance,” she said.