Faisal Fareed
Daijiworld Media Network - Lucknow
Lucknow, Sep 13: State chief of Samajwadi Party (SP) Akhilesh Yadav led the cyclist riding on his imported cycle during the second day of his Kranti Rath journey in Unnao on Tuesday.
Akhilesh peddled his way from Phoolbagh in Kanpur to Shuklaganj in Unnao, a distance of around 20 kms interacting with party workers and curious onlookers. "I regulary ride cycle, it is good for your health and also relates to you common people," he said while he was being complimented by people during the cycle journey.
The Kranti Rath received fairly good response with large turnout at Kanpur and Unnao. Party leaders including MLAs Deepkal Kumar, Udairaj Yadav, Kuldeep Sengar, MLC Naresh Uttam and workers of frontal organisations kept company with Akhilesh during the journey.
When reminded that Kranti Rath was also taken out by his father Mulayam in 1987 which led to the ouster of Congress regime, he remarked: "There is no comparison but today people are fed up with corruption. Price rise, unemployment, poor health facilities every thing has made life miserable for the common denizens. My journey is aimed at highlighting these issues so that BSP government can be ousted during the next journey," he said.
However, party spokesperson Rajendra Choudhary claimed that he was part of Mulayam's Kranti Rath in 1987 and had visited Unnao. "The mood is the same, then also it was change of power and now again history will repeat itself. SP will regain power after the journey in next elections," he said.
During the journey, Akhilesh was quizzed about the expelled SP leader Amar Singh which he evaded carefully. "I am sorry for his poor health.
For anything else, the matter is in the court and it is not appropriate to comment," he said. He refused to comment regarding party's support to former general secretary, Amar Singh. "Let us begin fresh, I cannot comment much on this subject," he said.
The SP has embarked upon the journey to expose the misdeeds of BSP government and galvanise its cadre for the coming assembly elections in 2012.