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India Ka DNA 2019 Conclave: Rahul Gandhi can dream to be PM, I can`t, says Akhilesh

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New Delhi: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said he has no aspirations to be the country’s Prime Minister but the need of the hour is for India to have a new leader at the political helm.

Speaking at Zee News India Ka DNA 2019 conclave, Akhilesh said that Mahagatbandhan is a possible platform that could introduce its leaders. Asked if he saw Rahul Gandhi becoming the PM candidate of opposition parties, the Samajwadi Party leader said much would depend on how people vote in the Lok Sabha 2019 elections. “Rahul has the advantage of dreaming big because he comes from a family that has had PMs. There’s nothing wrong with it. But Congress Party will have to work hard like any other party,” he said, adding that he has no such aspirations. “I don’t want to go to Delhi. I am happy in Uttar Pradesh. My dreams are not as big as to become PM. I dream of making expressways and development of my state.”

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Hinting that the seat-sharing arrangement with Congress could have hurt SP in the previous UP Assembly elections, Akhilesh said that it was the correct decision at the time. “There are many who say it was incorrect but I felt it was right at the time. I anyway don’t like to remain in the past and believe in moving forward,” he said.

Akhilesh then launched a full-fledged attack on the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in UP. “Where are the jobs? How much work has been done on infrastructure? Forget about the entire country and let’s speak about UP. Which big expressway has been started, where has a new metro been started? At least SP focussed on development of infrastructure which helped create jobs and led to happiness of people at large,” he said. “Yogi Adityanath (UP CM) is busy inaugurating projects which were started by SP. If he continues to ‘bless us’, I am sure we will win the next time.”

The 44-year-old political leader also highlighted on by-poll wins of SP-BSP combine to point that people are turning away from BJP. “Come to Phulpur, visit Gorakhpur and see why BJP lost and we managed to win. All we want is for people in power to work for the country. In state elections, we kept talking about development while BJP kept playing divisive politics. It worked for them at the time but won’t again,” he said while also adding that faulty electronic voting machines cannot be used. “Democracies the world over are not putting their trust in these machines. Why are we?”

Source: Zee News