Akhilesh hopeful of positive showing in Lok Sabha polls

Lucknow, March 15 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Saturday said the Samajwadi Party (SP) will romp home with sizeable numbers in the Lok Sabha election.

Interacting with the media on completing two years in office, the 41-year-old SP leader said his government has done excellent work in education, agriculture, healthcare and power and hoped that people will reciprocate in the same manner.

"In just two years not only have we mobilised the state resources to shore up core sectors, we have also fulfilled most of the promises made in our election manifesto of 2012," he added.

Claiming that his government has prioritised development infrastructure in the state, he mentioned the projects and schemes like four-lane linking of all district headquarters, free medicine, X-rays, pathological tests at government hospitals, free distribution of laptops to class 12 passouts and opening of Amul and Mother Dairy in some districts.

When asked who was his biggest political opponent, the chief minister refused to be specific and said his party has taken it upon itself to stop the communal forces.

He also trashed the results of the opinion polls predicting a drubbing for his party in the elections.

"Everyone knows how these opinion polls are conducted and why, I leave it to the discretion of people to judge them," he said, while adding that his party would emerge stronger after the elections.

He also made light of the frequent reprimands by his father and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"He has this right, both as the party president and a father," he said smilingly.

On a question on the allegedly deteriorating law and order situation in the state, he said a lot has been done on this front including modernisation of the police force.

"Action has been taken against errant police officials and responsibilities have been fixed," the chief minister said.