“U.P. should get rid of Kasab. ...What I mean by KASAB is — KA for Congress, SA for Samajwadi Party and B for BSP”.

BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday dubbed the Congress, the SP and the BSP as “KASAB”, adding yet another acronym in the Uttar Pradesh poll trail, and said development will elude the State till “this Kasab is laid to rest“.

Elaborating on the acronym at an election meeting in Gorakhpur, he said, “Ye Uttar Pradesh ki janata is baar ke chunav mein is Kasab se mukti paa le. Main phir se bolta hu Uttar Pradesh ki janata is baar ke chunav mein is Kasab se mukti paa le. Kasab se mera matlab kuch aur mat nikaliyega. Kasab se mera matlab hai — KA se Congress, SA se Samajwadi Party aur B se BSP (In this election, people of U.P. should get rid of Kasab. I say it again, people of U.P. should get rid of Kasab. Do not take any other meaning when I say Kasab. What I mean by KASAB is — KA for Congress, SA for Samajwadi Party and B for BSP).”

Mr. Shah made these comments while seeking to draw a parallel between the rival parties and the Mumbai attack perpetrator Ajmal Kasab.

“Until and unless Kasab is laid to rest, development and prosperity will continue to elude the poll-bound State.

“In other words, it means that the state may have to languish further, if there is no respite from these political parties,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has coined “SCAM” for the SP, the Congress, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati, and dubbed the BSP as “Behenji Sampatti Party”. Ms. Mayawati has described the BJP as “Bhartiya Jumla (rhetoric) Party” and punned with Mr. Modi’s initials saying they stood for “Mr Negative Dalit Man”.

Mr. Yadav had his own explanation for “SCAM” — Save Country from Amit Shah and Modi.

The BJP president exuded confidence that the party would storm to power in Uttar Pradesh with two-thirds majority.

“Voters of the State are fed up with misrule under successive SP and BSP governments, which lasted for nearly 14 years, and they are desperately seeking a change,” he said.

Taking a jibe at Mr. Yadav, he said, “Akhilesh says kaam boltaa hai (performance speaks), but no work appears to have been done so far. But, the state has emerged as number one in terms of crime against women, rape, loot and hooliganism.”

Mr. Shah claimed that SP already knew it was fighting a losing battle in the U.P. polls, and hence it went for a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.

“If the State government had done something concrete and was confident about its performance, there would have been no need for alliance (with the Congress),” he said.

He also termed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Mr. Yadav as “two princes — one giving tough times to his mother and the other to his father”. And the voters of U.P. are feeling troubled by both of them, Mr. Shah added.