lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 20, 2019 17:28 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a frontal attack on BSP chief Mayawati and the SP president Akhilesh Yadav saying their alliance is a “fake friendship” meant only at misleading people of Uttar Pradesh in the time of elections. PM Modi said their alliance will end on the day of counting of votes.

“You very well know the truth of those who make empty promises and proclaim hollow friendship. One friendship was also seen during the UP polls. The friendship got over with the elections,” said PM Modi referring to the Samajwadi Party’s alliance with the Congress for the assembly elections in 2017.

Akhilesh Yadav and Congress president Rahul Gandhi had claimed that theirs was not an alliance for elections but a friendship for future. However, the alliance did not last long and the two parties parted ways ahead of Lok Sabha bypolls for the seats vacated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, who were elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 parliamentary polls.

The Samajwadi Party allied with the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal to contest the bypolls. The grand-alliance of the three parties is contesting the Lok Sabha polls together while the Congress, having been overlooked, decided to go alone in Uttar Pradesh for the national elections.

On the BSP-SP alliance for the Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi said, “Another friendship has been formed. But the date on which it will break up is already fixed. Should I tell you the date when they will move apart? May 23, Thursday.”

The prime minister sharp attack at the grand-alliance came a day after Mayawati and SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav share dais together for the first time since 1995, when they broke up the SP-BSP coalition that was in power in Uttar Pradesh.

Soon after, Mayawati was allegedly attacked by the SP workers while she was camping at a guest house in Lucknow. Maywati’s BSP and Mulayam Singh’s SP never joined hands till Akhilesh Yadav approached the Dalit leader with the proposal to challenge the BJP together in the Lok Sabha polls. The BSP had failed to win a single seat in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, when the BJP-led coalition had won 73 of 80 parliamentary seats in the state.

Targeting the alliance, PM Modi said, “The day election results are announced, Bua and Babua will resume their enmity part two. They will start reminding one another of the guest-house incident and take vow to bring one another’s downfall.”

Etah, where PM Modi addressed his rally, goes to the polls on April 23 along with nine other Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Altogether 116 Lok Sabha seats will vote in the third phase of the national polls on April 23. The votes will be counted for all 543 Lok Sabha constituencies on May 23 after polling for seven-phased parliamentary polls gets over on May 19.