Old pension scheme will be restored if Samajwadi Party wins UP assembly polls: Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party Chief and Azamgarh MP, Akhilesh Yadav further said that if his party comes to power, Samajwadi Pension Scheme will be started and each beneficiary will get Rs 18,000 financial assistant.

LUCKNOW: Former chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said that the old pension scheme system will be restored for the retired employees if his party win the upcoming assembly elections and forms next government in Uttar Pradesh. 

For a long time, the government employees have been demanding restoration of the old pension system, the Samajwadi Party chief said while speaking to the reporters.

The old pension scheme system before 2005 will be restored for the retired employees if Samajwadi Party forms its government in Uttar Pradesh. For a long time, government employees have been demanding restoration of the old pension system: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav pic.twitter.com/8XB7QjCVbU

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The Samajwadi Party Azamgarh MP further said that if his party comes to power, he will also revive the Yash Bharti awards. Akhilesh said that the Yash Bharti awards were set up to honour the people from Uttar Pradesh who had excelled in their fields.

The Yash Bharti award recipients include Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah, Raj Babbar, Nadira Babbar and Nawazuddin Siddiqui among others. Bhajan singer Anup Jalota, lyricist Sameer, singer Rekha Bharadwaj, classical singer Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Olympian Ashok Kumar and Paramveer Chakra awardee Yogendra Singh Yadav were also recipients of this award.

Talking about the old Samajwadi Pension Scheme, Akhilesh said that it will be started and each beneficiary will get Rs 18,000 financial assistant. 

While addressing a press conference at the party office in Lucknow, Yadav said "Samajwadi Pension Scheme will be started when SP come to power. Financial assistance of Rs 18,000 each will be given annually to underprivileged women and families below the poverty line (BPL) under this scheme."

Akhilesh also said, "Earlier under this scheme, the financial assistance was given to Rs 6000 and there wasn`t a single-family in Bundelkhand who wouldn`t have been benefited."

Akhilesh to contest UP polls from Azamgarh

Earlier in the day, Yadav said he will contest elections after taking permission from the people of Azamgarh. "I will contest elections after taking permission from the Azamgarh people," he said. 

Aparna Yadav joins BJP 

In an interesting turn of events, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav had joined the BJP on Wednesday. She joined the party in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and and its state chief Swatantra Dev Singh.

She is married to Prateek Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav's second wife while SP president Akhilesh Yadav is his son from the first marriage. Aparna Yadav said she has always been impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and added that the nation's interest has always been her priority.

There had been much speculation about her joining the BJP, and the development highlights the rift in the SP's ruling family at a time when Akhilesh Yadav has been working to rally the party's base in the run-up to the state assembly polls.

The BJP may field her in the polls, sources said. Aparna Yadav had contested the 2017 assembly polls on the Samajwadi Party ticket from Lucknow Cantt but had lost to BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi, now a Lok Sabha member.

7 phase assembly elections in UP

Elections for the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10, the Election Commission said. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. 

The counting of votes will take place on March 10. In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP won a landslide victory winning 312 Assembly seats. The party secured a 39.67 per cent vote share in the elections for 403-member Assembly. Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, BSP won 19 while Congress could manage to win only seven seats.