LUCKNOW: Concluding the fourth phase of his Vijay Yatra with a 350-km long lap on the Purvanchal Expressway in 16 hours, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter to thank the crowds who welcomed him all along the route well past midnight.
The yatra, that started from Ghazipur at 12.30 on Wednesday afternoon, concluded before daybreak (around 4am) on Thursday.
Moved by the crowds waiting to welcome him on either side of the Expressway even after dark till beyond midnight, Akhilesh tweeted a photograph of himself waving at the crowds atop his Vijay Rath with thousands of people standing around. “But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep … ,” he wrote under the photograph that he tweeted around 1am. Hours later he tweeted again: “ … It is now time for a new dawn, time for change” apparently referring to the upcoming assembly polls in UP.
Emboldened by the response to the Vijay Yatra on the expressway, which SP described as “unprecedented”, the former UP CM announced that more such yatras will be undertaken and the process will be repeated till SP government is formed in the state.
“The historic response and support extended all along the Expressway from the people of Purvanchal and workers, office bearers and leaders of Samajwadi Party and alliance partners who stood by throughout the day and even at night – I heartfelt thank you to all,” Akhilesh tweeted in Hindi.
He said the way people lined up all along the Expressway to express their support to SP was a befitting reply to ruling BJP’s move to remove the word Samajwadi from the name of the Expressway. SP chief said the expressway was originally named “Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway”, but the ruling BJP dropped the word “Samajwadi” from it. Now people lined up the entire length of the Expressway to express their support to the Vijay Yatra and have proved that “Samajwadi” was wrongly dropped from the name, Akhilesh said.
Vijay Yatra that started from Ghazipur passed through Mau, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ambedkarnagar, Sultanur, Amethi, Ayodhya and Barabanki before reaching Lucknow around 4:30am on Thursday.
