On the eve of the last phase of the ongoing Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey on Sunday said that the poor are the BJP's "wealth" and they will take the party beyond the 300-seat mark on March 10, the day on which the votes polled will be counted.
The seventh phase of elections will be held tomorrow on 53 seats spread across nine districts.
Speaking to ANI, Pandey said, "The 80 per cent of the poor population in the country are seeing how Prime Minister Modi and CM Yogi have worked for their welfare. The poor are the BJP's wealth, they will take us beyond the 300 seat mark in the election. So the remarks of Mulayam Singh or any other leader do not have any impact. The poor are with us for their upliftment."
"The BJP will cross the 300 seat mark once again. The trends that have come in the six phases of the polls so far show that we will cross the 300 seat mark," he added.
Hitting out at former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Union Minister said that his statements against the BJP not working for the poor will have no impact on the poor as they have seen Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath working for them through various welfare schemes.
"Mulayam Singh Yadav is campaigning in Jaunpur and saying that the BJP has not done anything for the poor. There will be no impact with such statements. Because he did not do anything for the poor, only thought about his family and for one caste and community," he said.
Talking about his party's preparations for the last phase of elections, Singh said that his party would win 40 out of the 53 seats that will go to the polls tomorrow.
"Voting is to be held on 53 seats in the seventh phase tomorrow and in the previous 2017 Assembly elections, BJP and its alliance partners had won 38 seats. A lot of work has been done from the inspiration of PM Modi and the efforts of CM Yogi. Be it the construction of medical colleges, roads or the COVID-19 management, so much work has been done that the people are happy. We are contesting with full responsibility. We had won 38 seats out of the 53 seats last time, this time we will win 40 seats this time," the Union Minister said.
"In my parliamentary constituency Chandauli, we won 3 out of 4 seats. I am saying with full responsibility that we are going to win the fourth seat which we did not win in Sakaldiha. Along with Ghazipur Sadar, Zafarabad, and Zamania, we are going to register a win on Saidpur, Jakhanian seats as well," he added exuding confidence in Kalicharan Rajbhar defeating Om Prakash Rajbhar "with a large margin of votes".
Taking a jibe at the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief, Singh said that he will reach the "same state after March 10, from where he started".
Responding to Ram Gopal Yadav's letter to Akhilesh Yadav expressing concern about the ballot paper, Singh said that he is doing so to accuse the BJP of EVM tampering after the counting of votes.
"This is proof of the defeat of the Samajwadi Party. Their defeat is assured. They made such tall claims that they would win 400 out of the 403 seats. They know that their claims are going to be busted. So he is writing to Akhilesh so that if they lose to the Modi-Yogi duo, then they could accuse the BJP of EVM tampering," he said.
"It is the tendency of the Opposition that if they win an election, they would not thank the EVM and the Election Commission, but if they lose, they would blame them. People will not fall into their trap," Singh added.
Meanwhile, the polling on Monday will decide the fate of 613 candidates on 54 assembly seats in nine districts of the state.
The polling will commence at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm in the districts of Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra.
The key constituencies in this phase include Azamgarh, Mau, Zahoorabad, Mohammadabad, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt and Gyanpur.
( With inputs from ANI )
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