india

Updated: May 16, 2019 20:05 IST

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not fulfilling the promise of cleaning the Ganga, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Thursday said the holy river, considered to be a deity in India, would punish the PM by uprooting him from power.

Addressing a joint rally with Akhilesh Yadav in Varanasi, Mayawati said: “Modi had promised that he would ensure cleanliness of the Ganga (in 2014). The sacred river showered blessings on him but he didn’t take advantage of it. Even after spending of crores of rupees, Ganga is not yet clean.”

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav also attacked the PM claiming that he had promised Kyoto-like development in Varanasi but failed to do so. “Those who had vowed to clean the Ganga couldn’t do so because their intentions were not clean,” he said.

Raising the issue of demolition of buildings for the Vishwanath Corridor project, Mayawati said many families had to suffer. 0She blamed the BJP government for failing to fulfil even one-fourth of the promises that it made ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

“The PM is leveling allegations against the (SP-BSP) alliance as his party is in a bad position. The BJP will lose power on May 23 and its bad days will begin,” she said. Mayawati promised that the BSP would provide employment to all after coming to power at the Centre.

Akhilesh Yadav accused PM Modi of playing divisive politics and said if he returned to power, democracy would cease to exist in the country. He said Modi roamed around the world and hugged many people during his five-year tenure but reality finally came out.

“An international publication has written that if Modi returns to power, democracy will end in the country. Another magazine has written that PM Modi divides the society. Now, the entire world is aware about the threat to democracy in the country. The ‘Gujarat Model’ was nothing but a model to divide the society in the name of caste and religion,” Akhilesh said.

He urged the people to support the alliance to save democracy. Akhilesh said UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that he was providing round-the-clock power supply to Varanasi but this work was done under the Samajwadi Party government before 2017.

“The lanes of Varanasi are in a bad condition. The government has also deceived boatmen. It also stopped the work of cleaning of Varuna river started by the SP government,” he said.

Akhilesh said the economy was in a bad shape due to wrong policies of the BJP and added that the government had taken away jobs from the people.”The BJP leaders are upset and they are now frightened in Bengal. They are having sleepless nights because they are going to lose power,” he said.

The Samajwadi Party boss said the government which claimed to fight against terrorism could not face a jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav who wanted to pose some questions to the BJP.

The SP-BSP alliance had fielded sacked BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav against PM Modi in Varanasi but his nomination paper was rejected at the last moment. Tej Bahadur claimed that his papers were rejected at the behest of the ruling BJP. Shalini Yadav is now the SP-BSP alliance’s candidate from Varanasi.