Announcing that the SP was in talk with the Congress for alliance in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday disclosed that in the coming Navratri his party will announce candidates for VIP seats in Uttar Pradesh for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Talking to the media after a book release programme here, Yadav said that we want Congress and Samajwadi Party to contest elections together in Madhya Pradesh and defeat the BJP. “The SP unit of Madhya Pradesh has suggested us names and candidates for some seats but the announcement would be made after talks with the Congress,” he said.

In response to a question, the SP president said that during Navratri, the party will announce candidates on VIP seats.

“The Samajwadi Party has already made a strategy to defeat BJP with the support of the masses, who are now ready to remove BJP from the Centre,” he said.

Yadav said that today people of every society and party are demanding caste census. “Everyone wants that caste census should be conducted and the rights should be given according to the population of each caste. Today backward classes, Dalits and minorities, especially Muslim, are lagging behind everywhere in jobs, employment or in educational institutions,” he added.

The SP President said that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be a big change for the country.

He said if the INDIA coalition government is formed at the Centre, then the country will follow the principles and path shown by Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, but if they are left behind, then who knows which path the BJP will take by changing the Constitution.

Yadav said that the backward classes and Dalits had formed the NDA government at the Center by giving strength. But now the BJP governments had exploited these classes. If backward people and Dalits leave NDA, then they will be left nowhere.

Talking about Women Reservation Act, Yadav said that the BJP is deceiving the public in the name of Nari Shakti Vandan Law.

“If women’s reservation has become a law, then why did the BJP not give 33 per cent tickets to women in the assemblies elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and other states? BJP should tell how many tickets it has given to women in this election and how many women from backward and Dalit class were given tickets,” he said.

He said that the Women’s Reservation Act is incomplete without quota for women belonging to backward, Dalit and minority classes.