With assembly polls a few months away, Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu speaks with Prashant Srivastava about the Yogi Adityanath government’s performance. Excerpts:

Why made you go grey? What is your assessment of the Yogi government?

This government has done nothing except branding itself with banners, hoardings and juggling of false figures. It’s just duping people. Crime has gone up sharply and women are insecure. Farmers, small businessmen, labourers, youth…everyone is worried.

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What’s your take on the recent panchayat elections?

There’s jungle raj and the government has failed in -fighting the pandemic. That’s why people have rejected it. It is an indication of the things to come. Faith in the Congress is rising. Its vote-share has gone up, while that of the BJP and Samajwadi Party has decreased.

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The government says it has done a lot to increase farmers’ income.

The government promised to double farmers’ income, write off their debts, pay sugarcane prices in 14 days or else pay interest to them, and revive closed sugar mills. But it has betrayed farmers and at least 850 of them have committed suicide. There’s a Rs 2,800-crore scam in the crop insurance scheme. There’s a provision to compensate farmers in case of crop failure, but they got nothing in the past four years when crops of paddy, wheat, oilseeds, potatoes, maize, sugarcane…were destroyed. The government has compensated them only on Twitter. Only those who collude with this government get the benefits of paddy procurement centres. Farmers are unable to sell at MSP. They have to sell paddy at Rs 1,100-1,200 per quintal instead of Rs 1,868. Potato-producing farmers were forced to throw potatoes on the streets. The Gaushala scheme was launched with a lot of fanfare, but the cows starved to death due to lack of maintenance.

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The government says the One District One Product (ODOP) scheme is very successful.

It was originally conceived by the Congress, which also gave it shape. Aligarh locks, Saharanpur woodcraft, Firozabad bangles, Bhadohi’s carpets and sugar mills, thousands of small companies in Noida…it’s all due to the Congress. Now, the bangle industry is on the verge of collapse. Weavers used to get electricity at a flat rate of Rs 45; now it has been abolished and weavers are on the road. Bhadohi’s carpet industry, which used to do business of Rs 1,200 crore, is gasping, bringing thousands of labourers on the road. Moradabad’s Rs 20,000-crore brass industry is in disarray. As is Varanasi’s sari industry.

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The CM claims the crime graph has dropped.

Look up the NCRB data. UP is No. 1 in robbery and harassment of women. Action has been taken only against the poor and the weak.