Akhilesh to hold caste census if voted to power

Lucknow:Shifting the focus, once again, to caste politics, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav has said that a caste census would be held in Uttar Pradesh if his party comes to power in 2022.

"The BJP government has announced that it will set up a data centre in Greater Noida where it will collect all the statistics about the people in the state. Hum aapko bharosa dilana chahte hain ki Samajwadi sarkar aayegi to jaation ki jan-ganana kar kar ke isi expressway par kahin na kahin data centre banana ka kaam hum samajwadi karenge (I want to assure you that when Samajwadi Party government will be formed, a caste census will be conducted and information stored in a data centre here on the expressway)," he said while interacting with party workers in his native village Sefai on Tuesday.

Akhilesh attacked the ruling BJP for adopting politics of hate and falsehood. He said the BJP wants to pitch communities and castes against each other.

"There are sections of the society which are still deprived of their rights despite clear provisions in the Constitution. A census would help the government to formulate better policies to cater to the people from all sections of the society," he said.

He attacked the Yogi Adityanath government for what he described "a false publicity and a misleading campaign".

"Recently, the chief minister was addressing an event where he said 15 crore people have been provided employment. The state's population is around 24 crore and 15 crore are not even employable," Akhilesh said.

He further questioned the claims of Uttar Pradesh government of attracting an investment of Rs 5 lakh crore at the Investors Summit held in Lucknow two years ago.

"The fact is that the BJP government has failed to get any fresh investment except what was finalised during the SP regime. Recently there was a news report how companies which had signed MoUs with the government for the Defence Corridor have cancelled their agreement," he said.

Akhilesh's also released a new tag line for his party which says "Nai hawa hai, nai Sapa hai badoon ka haath, yuva ke saath (A rejuvenated new SP, driven by the elders accompanied by youths).