Old Friend, New Friend, Need Balancing Act: Akhilesh

Addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of at event, ‘Vision India: AI (Artificial Intelligence) Summit’, here, Yadav clarified: “Bihar’s experience was unlike what we had hoped for. We will run the I.N.D.I.A. bloc and strive for bringing along all partners,” Akhilesh said.

Asked about his meetings with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, he said that latter could not be ignored for befriending a ‘new one’. Describing Rama Rao as an ‘old friend’, Yadav said that making a choice between an old friend and a new one “becomes tough, hence the balancing act.”

“This type of difficulty comes when you have an old friend and also a new one. I will leave it to your wisdom to decide if friendships are to be strengthened with only one or both. It is our ingrained nature that we cannot abandon the old friend,” he explained. Yadav also met BRS leaders T. Harish Rao and Talasani Srinivas Yadav and went with Rama Rao to an eatery here on Saturday.

Yadav said the Samajwadi Party would use AI technology to defeat the BJP in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2027. He clarified that he was against divisive politics and was working through ‘Vision India’ with the goal of putting an end to it. He stated that he would only pursue positive, developmental, and progressive politics.

The Samajwadi Party is conducting ‘Vision India’ summits in all major cities with the aim of creating awareness among the youth about the use of technology in governance and future transformation. The first summit was held in Bengaluru, and the one being held in the city is the second. Yadav also coined the slogan ‘Jisse ho sabki bhalaai, wahi hai saccha AI’ (The true AI would be the one which will benefit everyone).

He expressed concern that Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of cybercrimes in the country, and that cyberscams were increasing by the day. He explained that cyber criminals were not only stealing money from ordinary people but are also defrauding high-ranking officials and judges. “Fake videos are created with the help of AI, which are circulated on social media. There is a need to curb all these activities by utilising AI technology. I hope everyone would benefit from technology,” he underlined.

Responding to a question regarding the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being undertaken by the Election Commission of India, he said Uttar Pradesh had a population of approximately 25 crore, and that the BJP government was trying to remove about 3 crore voters through the exercise.

Yadav said that many votes were being lost due to the improper use of technology. He alleged that the BJP was undertaking SIR only to win in states like Uttar Pradesh. “This is not SIR, but rather a National Register of Citizens (NRC) process,” Yadav alleged.

“The BJP government is using SIR because it cannot directly implement the NRC. Even booth-level officials have not been trained, leading to numerous challenges and problems at the ground level. The Election Commission's responsibility to grant voting rights, not to remove votes,” Yadav emphasised.