JANATA DAL United (JD-U) state president of Uttar Pradesh Suresh Niranjan ‘Bhaiyyaji’ has criticized the economic policies adopted by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which have made the lives of poor and middle class of this country miserable, and people are finding it hard to make both ends meet. There is no check on corruption and scams have become an order of the day. He was expressing his views during a press conference organised here at the party’s headquarters in Lucknow on Friday.

“This is for the 6^th time in the past six months that the prices of petrol were raised again. It seems the leaders of UPA have not been able to see the plight of common man especially the middle class and farmers who are finding it hard to survive now. There is no check on the prices of essential items too. I feel that both the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are working as partners to the Congress in this game and thus both are not taking back their support from the UPA,” said Suresh Niranjan ‘Bhaiyyaji.’

He alleged that there was rampant corruption in the state too. “The honest government servants are being harassed by the superiors and one can see that what has happened to the DIG Fire department D D Mishra who dared to speak against the misdeeds of Mayawati government that he was forcibly taken away to the hospital. The Lok ayukta has already taken its toll on some 12 ministers who were removed by the government on the charges of corruption and many sent to jails,” said Suresh Niranjan.

He told the reporters present on the occasion that almost all the roads in Uttar Pradesh were in bad shape. The quality of roads and bridges that were made in the past four-and-a-half years was not satisfactory at all. Even the state of affairs in the area of PWD minister was not good where a portion of the bridge collapsed due to the material used of inferior quality.

He revealed that talks were on with the saffron party (BJP) over seat sharing, and the JDU expect some 55 seats that include the seats that were marked for the Apna Dal as members of Apna Dal have joined JD-U after the death of Apna Dal founder Sone Lal Patel, the seats mostly will be from the regions of Bundelkhand, Poorvanchal and some in the western side of the state.

Suresh Niranjan said the party would present the Bihar model though the BJP was adamant in projecting the Gujarat model. He told the main issue before the party would be of giving good governance, clean candidates, price rise and corruption.

Pradeep Srivastava in-charge of the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh told his party would carry out the work of political cleansing. The entry of some anti-social and criminals into politics has disgraced the entire community of politicians but then that’s not the case. The duty and responsibility to elect clean and good candidates lie with the people so they must be cautious while casting their ballot.

The JDU will begin their election campaign yatra from Allahabad and then it will be covering all the districts of Uttar Pradesh. The main aim of this campaign would be to increase the party’s base among the masses and to make them aware about the programmes and policies that were carried out by the party in Bihar.

The party will be holding a convention of three divisions in Kanpur on November 13 which will be attended by the party’s national president Sharad Yadav. Among the others who were present on the occasion include Shanker Yadav, vice-president, Subhash Pathak, general secretary.