Gainsari, 15 May (HS): Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav stated on Wednesday that if the INDI Alliance wins power, the quality of the rations supplied to the poor would increase and the number will be doubled.

He said that the BJP is providing inadequate rations to the underprivileged. Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress president, and Akhilesh Yadav, the SP president, held a joint news conference in Lucknow.

Addressing a public meeting in favor of party candidate Rakesh Yadav in the Gainsari assembly byelection in Balrampur district, Yadav said, We are assuring our poor that while the ration will be increased, we will also work on providing free (mobile) data along with flour.

In a move to challenge the BJP administration's popular free ration policy, Kharge declared at a news conference that the INDI coalition government will offer 10 kg of free food grains to the needy each month after taking office. Yadav opposed the BJP's Agnipath proposal for armed services recruitment. He further accused the BJP of defrauding the young by failing to provide employment or preventing recruitment exam paper leaks.

He stated that if the BJP returns to power, police personnel's posts will be transitory.

Yadav said that the BJP-led NDA administration at the Centre intends to revoke the privileges guaranteed by Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar in the Constitution. Those who want to modify the Constitution will face public opposition. If the Constitution survives, so will our democracy, he added. The Gainsari assembly byelection was called when Shiv Pratap Yadav, the sitting Samajwadi Party MLA, died on January 26.

Hindusthan Samachar/Abhishek Awasthi/Manoj