Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Wednesday said if the INDIA bloc comes to power, the quality of the ration being provided to the poor will be improved and its quantity will be doubled.

He alleged that the "BJP is providing bad ration to the poor".

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and SP President Akhilesh Yadav held a joint press conference in Lucknow.

Addressing a public meeting in support of party candidate Rakesh Yadav in the Gainsari assembly bypoll in Balrampur district, Yadav said, "We are assuring our poor that while the ration will increase, we will also work on providing free (mobile) data along with flour," he said.

Those who would have heard the press conference of the INDIA bloc's Congress and the Samajwadi Party must have come to know that when their government will be formed in the future, they will improve the quality of ration and double the quantity, Yadav said.

In an attempt to counter the BJP government's popular free ration scheme, Kharge announced at the press conference that the INDIA coalition government will provide 10 kg of free food grains every month to the poor after coming to power.

Yadav attacked the BJP's Agnipath scheme of recruitment in the armed forces. He charged that the BJP has also cheated the youth by not providing jobs or by not stopping the paper leaks of recruitment exams.

He said if the BJP comes to power again, the jobs of the police personnel will be made temporary.

Yadav alleged that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre wants to snatch away the rights which Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar gave in the Constitution. "The people will change those who want to change the Constitution. If the Constitution survives then our democracy will survive," he said.

The assembly byelection was necessitated in Gainsari following the demise of sitting Samajwadi Party MLA Shiv Pratap Yadav on January 26.

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