At Kisan Mahapanchayat, Akhilesh Yadav promises more mandis

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday assured his support to farmers and promised to build many more mandis in Uttar Pradesh and strengthen the mandi system if the party comes to power.

Addressing his first Kisan Mahapanchayat at Tappal near Aligarh, Yadav termed himself a "dhartiputra" (son of the soil) who was sensitive to farmers' cause unlike the BJP which, he said, was run by "10-5 officegoers" without any understanding of farming or the farmers.

Yadav also took jibes at the UP chief minister over the law and order situation and other issues in the state.


He said the BJP had become blind to farmers' pain, in part because those making laws in the government were officials who did not own farms and had no clue about how farming worked.

On the Prime Minister and the UP chief minister’s comments about growing strawberries in the state, Yadav asked where would one find strawberries in Mathura and Aligarh.

He said according to a report, the country needed 42,000 mandis but there were only about 7,000.