Regional parties will be crucial to defeating the BJP in 2024, according to Yadav

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav expressed optimism that an opposition coalition will form in the near future and said that regional parties would be crucial to challenging the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Yadav said that the Congress should determine how to participate in this envisioned opposition front.

"Actions are being taken to create an opposition front or coalition. Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, and K Chandrashekar Rao are the chief ministers of Bihar, West Bengal, and Telangana, respectively (on their own). In an interview with PTI Video, he said, "I am optimistic that an opposition coalition will form in the days to come and fight against the BJP.

The SP leader said that it is the regional parties in different states that are engaged in conflict with the saffron party and denied that he was placing the Congress and the BJP on a same footing.

Regional parties are waging a valiant battle against the saffron party on the ground, and he expressed optimism that they would triumph. "In many states, the Congress doesn't exist in compared to the BJP, but I am confident that they will win," he added.

When informed that local parties like the JD(U), RJD, and DMK are eager to include the Congress in the opposition alliance, Yadav said that they are already in a partnership with the grand old party.

It's about a tremendous conflict, and the House will determine how to participate in it, he added.

When asked who will represent the opposition in the next Lok Sabha elections, Yadav said that decision would be made after the vote and that it was "not a germane issue" at this time.

"You bring up the face. What about the face of the (BJP) who ran on false promises in 2014 and 2019 to win the election? Without mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he remarked.

The SP leader said that none of the promises made by the BJP in 2014 and 2019 were kept.

Yadav said that SP members are being assassinated in Amethi when asked whether his party will run for the Lok Sabha seats in Raebareli and Amethi, which are believed to be pocket boroughs of the Congress.

"Our cadres are being murdered in Amethi. Workers for the Samajwadi Party are uncertain about their allies. The Samajwadi employees there are helping one another; the Congress employees are not showing their support, he said.

As the Raebareli-based MP for the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, her son and former party president Rahul Gandhi lost against Amethi-based Union minister Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Parliament elections.

Yadav said that the Samajwadi Party will stop at nothing to block the BJP's onslaught in Uttar Pradesh in the next Lok Sabha elections.

"The BJP has to win in UP if it intends to rule the country in 2024. We'll make sure the BJP loses both in UP and throughout the nation. We will battle with our current partners in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

In the 2017 UP assembly elections, the SP and the Congress teamed together, however they were defeated by the BJP. The grand old party was excluded from the SP-BSP coalition in the state for the Lok Sabha elections conducted two years later.

The SP leader attacked the Centre for allegedly permitting the theft of the nation's assets and public funds while speaking about the Adani scandal.

He questioned, "Why isn't the so-called number two (richest guy) being questioned? Why is there no accountability on public money in LIC and SBI which is going lost?" The Hindenburg report, which accused the Adani group of accounting fraud and market manipulation, was released in January, just after the start of a Rs 20,000 crore follow-on share sale by Adani Enterprises, the conglomerate's main company.