Nation will follow principles of Ambedkar, Lohia if INDIA bloc wins 2024 LS polls: Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said if the opposition INDIA coalition comes to power at the Centre, the country will follow the principles and the path shown by Bhimrao Ambedkar and Ram Manohar Lohia.

"But if they do not succeed, then who knows what path the BJP will take by changing the Constitution," he said at a book launch event here.

Addressing the event to launch a book written by former MLA Neeraj Maurya, the Samajwadi Party chief said the caste system was imposed 5,000 ago which created gaps in the society.

"From time to time, great men worked to improve and awaken the society. We believe that when the society becomes educated, caste barriers will break and when it becomes prosperous, every caste will stand with each other."

"The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will bring a big change for the country. If the INDIA coalition forms a government at the Centre, then the country will follow the principles and path shown by Bhimrao Ambedkar and Ram Manohar Lohia. But if they can't, then who knows which path the BJP will take by changing the Constitution," Yadav said.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said that the backward classes and Dalits had given strength and formed the NDA government at the Centre. "The BJP government exploited these classes. If people of the backward classes and Dalits leave, NDA will be left nowhere."

Yadav accused the BJP of deceiving the people in the name of Nari Shakti Vandan law.

"If women's reservation bill has become a law, then why did the BJP not give 33 per cent tickets to women in the assembly elections? BJP should tell people how many tickets it has given to women in this election and of them how many women are from backward and Dalit classes. The Women's Reservation Act is incomplete without a quota for women belonging to the backward, Dalit and minority classes," he said.

Interacting with reporters after the programme, Yadav said, "We want the Congress and the Samajwadi Party to contest the assembly election in Madhya Pradesh together to defeat the BJP."