Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday blamed the laptops that his party had distributed as the reason why his party suffered losses in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
"We lost the Lok Sabha polls because of the laptops that we distributed. People were able to access Narendra Modi's speeches and his pictures online and thus voted for him," Mulayam said at a rally in Lucknow.
Reacting to the SP chief's remarks, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that a voter will only cast his vote in favour of political figures who have an agenda and a vision for the country.
"What Mulayam Singh Yadav said is true. If one distributes freebies before or during the elections only to win votes, then you impress the people. You should have an agenda for the country – only then will you win," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told ANI.
"People were impressed by the vision and direction in which Narendra Modi wanted to take the country, which is why people voted for him," he added. At the same time, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said that Mulayam probably meant that the SP's scheme did not work out in the party's favour.
"I think Mulayam Singh meant that his party provided people with a facility that did not turn out in their favour," he told the media. Meanwhile, SP leader Dr CP Rai defended Mulayam's remarks, stating that the party chief was just sharing his sadness at the youth of Uttar Pradesh not supporting the party during the Lok Sabha elections.
"Distributing laptops to the youth was a very ambitious scheme that no one in the country dared to undertake. When Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had first announced it, all parties thought that it could never be done. However, our CM was able to distribute 15 lakh laptops. We gave an opportunity to every household in the state to view the world – they even saw Narendra Modi's campaigns," he said.
"Mulayam ji only said what he did because he was a little sad that despite pulling off such an ambitious scheme, the youth of the state did not support our party," he added.
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