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Updated: Jan 11, 2019 20:04 IST

Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party are set to formalise their alliance on Saturday. At a meeting of party workers, BJP president Amit Shah on Friday came up with a reason why he thinks Uttar Pradesh’s two bitter rivals will join forces. Because, he told them, the opposition knows that it is impossible to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Live updates.

“Once upon a time, it was the Congress versus all. Now, it is Modi versus everybody else, because they know that removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi is impossible. This is an acceptance of Modi’s might,” he said.

Underlining the significance of the 2019 polls, Shah compared them with the third Battle of Panipat and warned BJP workers that consequences of some battles are felt for centuries. “The Marathas lost this one battle after winning 131, but had to pay a heavy price and we face 200 years of colonial slavery,” he said. The Third Battle of Panipat was fought in 1761 between the Marathas and Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali, in which the Marathas were defeated.

The BJP chief’s comments come a day before Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are expected to announce an alliance for 2019 polls.

Shah was confident that the SP-BSP alliance won’t affect BJP’s chances in Uttar Pradesh and the party would improve its 2014 tally of 71 seats in India’s most populous state.

Watch: Amit Shah: BJP committed to build Ram temple, Congress causing hurdles

On the Ram temple issue, he said that the BJP has always been committed to it. “BJP wants Ram Mandir to be constructed at the earliest. We are trying in the Supreme Court that the case reaches its conclusion but it is the Congress which is trying to create obstacles,” he said.

Shah, who was addressing thousands of BJP workers at the party’s two-day national council in New Delhi, said the parliamentary polls will be fight between two ideologies. He said the BJP stands for the poor whereas the opposition is getting together only for power.

The BJP chief also targeted Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi for alleging corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal. “Both mother and son are out on bail, but they hurl charges at PM Modi.”

Shah claimed that Rahul Gandhi was frustrated that the Congress has been out of power at the Centre and so he was talking about the Rafale at every public platform even when there isn’t any scam in the deal.

The BJP’s national conclave, possibly the last such event of the party before the elections, is being organised on the backdrop of the party losing the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to Congress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the national council, which meets once a year, on Saturday.