Akhilesh Yadav

SP president Akhilesh Yadav accused the police and jail administration of acting as agents of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Yadav, who visited Lucknow district jail to meet party worker Manish Agarwal, who was arrested earlier on Sunday

In a first, he has been completely focusing on Etawah, Mainpuri, Etah, Firozabad, Auraiya, Farrukhabad and Kannauj to strengthen 'Yadavland', which is seen as a strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

He asked his party worker to get tea from outside for him. "You never know, they may mix poison in my tea. I will drink my own tea and you people (cops) can drink your tea," he said. Akhilesh Yadav had reached the DGP headquarters unannounced

Calling for opposition parties to join hands, he said the process has already started. In a conversation with IANS, Akhilesh Yadav, a former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, said that programmes like Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra are proving to be preparations for the next Lok Sabha polls and by then, their impact will be felt.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he said that the issue of OBC reservation in the urban local bodies' elections was another attempt to prevent weaker sections from entering the corridors of power. "It is an attempt to snatch the rights of weaker sections. They are doing it to OBC and Dalits will next in line. The BJP wants to keep these sections fop society enslaved and will make sure that the next generations are remain trapped in slavery," he said.

Yadav was in Jhansi on Monday evening where he met jailed former SP MLA Deep Narain Yadav. The state government's action against SP MLA Irfan Solanki and Deep Narain was a strong message to the party to act in a similar fashion when it comes to power, the SP chief said.

The party also said that it has launched its preparation for the forthcoming state polls. "The party will contest the polls in MP with all its strength to emerge as an alternative to the BJP's hate politics. It is only our socialist ideology that will end BJP's hate politics," said a party spokesman. Earlier, at a party convention in September, Akhilesh Yadav had pledged to make the SP a national party.

Shivpal said he would live up to any responsibility, big or small, entrusted to him by party president Akhilesh Yadav. Speculation has been rife that Shivpal could be named the leader of the opposition or could be made the state president of the party, but the SP leadership has maintained a silence on the issue.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav put the party flag on Shivpal's car in Saifai on Thursday afternoon. Shivpal had formed the PSPL in 2018, two years after his rift with nephew his Akhilesh. As the rift widened, the SP slipped downhill in state politics, losing election after election.

Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav is leading in Mainpuri with a comfortable lead of over one lakh votes while BJP's Raghuraj Shakya has lost in his own booth. The performance of Shakya has been dismal in this by-election. In Khatauli, RLD's Madan Bhaiyya is also leading over BJP's Rajkumari Saini.