LUCKNOW: Rahul Gandhi can’t improve unless he gets responsibility, new ideas will emerge if Priyanka Gandhi becomes the face of Congress in UP, Congress-free India is becoming a reality, but BJP has far less to be happy about recent state polls than it claims, and Mayawati’s rule means return to stone age, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told ET in his first interview after the five-state polls altered political equations and raised stakes of UP’s 2017’s battle even further. Over the course of an exhaustive interaction, the young chief minister answered a whole range of questions, and unsurprisingly his sharpest barbs were reserved for all his political rivals.UP’s 2017 polls will be the most significant polls till 2019 general elections and the winner in Lucknow will command major influence as jockeying for Delhi begins later. Yadav’s incumbent Samajwadi Party will be engaged most likely in a four-corner fight with BSP , BJP and Congress. The UP CM therefore is among the most-watched politicians in the country now. And he repeatedly told ET said that UP’s elections will be fought on a “development” agenda.Yadav was careful but sharp when asked about Rahul Gandhi, who’s faced a barrage of criticism after Congress’s recent round of losses. “Can’t speak for Rahul Gandhi but any party that wants to strengthen its leaders should give them responsibility”. He emphasised the point by saying SP gave him, also a scion of political family, responsibility and that helped him mature.On Congress, Yadav was caustic: “Congress-mukt (free) Bharat is becoming a reality. Congress wasn’t able to keep BJP out… plus it did not make much of the opportunity it got.” He singled out Congress’s deployment of Prashant Kishor: “It’s sad that Congress has to now outsource its politics and hire consultants (a reference to Kishor) to strategise.” The SP leader had strong words for Congress’s strategy on looking for a Brahmin face (reportedly a Kishor-endorsed idea).“What's worse (for Congress) is that the ‘azaadi ki party’ (party of freedom struggle) says it wants a Brahmin face to lead its campaign. Why is Congress being so obviously casteist?” Yadav asked. The SP leader, who will be expected by his party to beat anti-incumbency like many CMs have done recently, was equally vocal on BJP’s performance, saying the party in fact has done poorly in the recent poll round. “May 19 results were shocking because one never expected BJP to do so badly in all states…in Tamil Nadu, it lost its deposit in most seats. Apart from Assam, BJP is absent everywhere else that went to polls. And Assam victory hinged on constructing a wall-…”kuch bada sochna chahiye” (they should think bigger)”.Yadav argued there was no achievement worth naming of the Narendra Modi government, which is completing two years in office in a few days. “…the only good thing the government has done is ‘aache dinon ki yaadein di hain’ (made us think of good days before BJP was in power).” SP’s traditional critique of BJP as a party that wants to “polarise” was repeated by Yadav but he gave a twist to this by saying Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who’s been touring UP, may end up “dividing the secular vote”.Kumar’s campaign to make himself a nationally accepted leader has focussed on UP. The UP CM said Kumar is free to roam the state and that his (Yadav’s) fight is not with Kumar, but the UP CM also said “it’s curious that he (Kumar) chose to start his campaign with chandan and tilak in Varanasi”.Yadav said if he started his campaign in Varanasi he would have inaugurated a road. And on Kumar’s signature prohibition policy, Yadav said he’s not in favour of laws banning adults from drinking.Mayawati, Yadav said, brought UP back to “stone age”, a reference to the ex-UP CM building many statues.