EXCLUSIVE: SP, BSP, Congress alliance cannot defeat BJP in UP polls, claims Ramdas Athawale

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said that defeating BJP in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections is tough for any party and even the three-party alliance of SP, BSP and Congress cannot defeat the saffron party.

New Delhi: Union Minister for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday said that even the three-party alliance of Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress cannot defeat Bharatiya Janta Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections as the last four and a half terms of Yogi Adityanath government had zero riots while UP has witnessed Hindu-Muslim riots in the then government of SP and BSP.

Speaking exclusively with ETV Bharat, Republican Party of India (RPI) chief Ramdas Athawale, who wants to contest at least 8-10 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh in alliance with BJP, said, "It is very tough for any party to defeat BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Even the alliance of SP, BSP and Congress cannot defeat us because the in last four and a half years of the Yogi government no Hindu-Muslim riot took place in the state while the then government's of SP and BSP in Uttar Pradesh had witnessed riots."

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"In last seven years, the schemes announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the people of Uttar Pradesh have benefitted all the segments of the society. Every citizen in the state is happy with the leadership of Narendra Modi because he talks of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas. That's why I think that BJP will again win like 2017 elections and this time we will get more than 300 seats and Republican Party will give its full support," said Ramdas Athawale.

The RPI chief said that his party wants to contest 8-10 assembly seats in alliance with BJP and he has also talked about this with BJP President JP Nadda. He said that we will be contesting in those Assembly seats which are having a high minority population and he will be meeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh on 31 July to discuss the agenda.

On being asked about his opinion on BSP's decision to contest the Assembly elections without any alliance, he said, "I think that if BSP Supremo Mayawati contests alone then also she would not be able to achieve much this time. Right now, Mayawati wants to play Brahmin card in the state, she thinks that Brahmins will vote for her party but that would not happen. The maximum will come with BJP because the Modi government has implemented the system of 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections, with this scheme Brahmins are happy. If the BSP will play Brahmin card then the Scheduled casts will be unhappy with her and this will not benefit Mayawati.

Ramdas Athawale said that calling Owaisi's AIMIM party BJP's B-Team is not right as everyone has the right to contest elections. "He has a separate party, he has a good hold on minorities so he can contest wherever he wants. I would say that he should not contest on only 100 seats, he should contest on 150 seats because the Muslim community is in large number in the state."

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Speaking on the Yogi government's draft of the population policy bill, he said, "Supreme Court recently announced that population should be controlled. For population control law should be constituted, this should be done by both the Centre and state as well. The increase in population is leading us towards poverty, people are getting less educated and unemployment is increasing."

"I had even proposed to the Parliament that instead of "Hum Do, Hamare Do", we should focus on "Hum Do, Hamara Ek", we should focus on this kind of law. If the population decreases and a family thinks of the one-child policy then they can grow their child with better living standards and education levels.

On the first day of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not introduce his recently inducted ministers due to the ruckus created by opposition parties in both houses. PM Modi then launched a scathing attack on opposition members and alleged that some people cannot digest Dalits, Women, SC/ST and OBC made ministers.

Reacting to this, MoS Ramdas Athawale said, "It is a ritual of the Parliament that whenever a Cabinet expansion takes place, the newly inducted ministers are introduced by the Prime Minister. Everyone in the Parliament should know which minister has got what portfolio. The opposition members created a ruckus when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was about to introduce the newly inducted ministers, they could have waited for 15-minutes and could have opposed after that but they collapsed the ritual of the Parliament. If the Modi government wants to give justice to all the sections of the society then they should have welcomed that."

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