Muzaffarnagar: Taking a swipe at his rival party in the state and its ally, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his campaign in Western Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, today (on Saturday), said that the alliance of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will only last till the counting of votes.
This comes a day after SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav along with his RLD ally Jayant Chaudhary launched a sharp attack against the saffron party here. Mr Yadav had dismissed the BJP’s poll issue of the exodus of Hindus from Kairana as well as BJP’s post poll alliance offer to Jayant Chaudhary saying, “Who is accepting their invitation? Imagine what condition they are in that they are compelled to invite?” Mr Chaudhary himself had also dismissed the offer earlier saying that he is not a “chavanni” that he will flip so easily.
Today, Mr Shah, while addressing the public in Muzaffarnagar during a campaign programme, said, “Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary are together only till counting. If their (SP) government is formed, then Azam Khan will sit (in their government) and Jayant Bhai will be out. Their candidates’ list can say what will happen after elections.” He also challenged Akhilesh Yadav saying, “Akhilesh babu is not even ashamed, yesterday he said here that the law and order situation is not good Akhilesh babu, today I have come to give our figures in a public programme, if you have the courage, declare the figures of your regime in a press conference tomorrow.”
The union HM also dismissed all other parties saying, “Earlier SP-BSP ruled here, when Behenji’s (BSP Chief Mayawati) party used to come, she used to talk about one caste. When Congress party came they used to talk about family and when Akhilesh babu used to come, he used to talk about goondas, mafia and appeasement.”
Notably, both SP and BJP leaders have been exchanging barbs ahead of assembly polls in the state that are scheduled for the next month. After Akhilesh Yadav yesterday claimed that his chopper was earlier halted in Delhi as part of BJP’s conspiracy to prevent him from flying to Muzaffarnagar, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya tweeted, “Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s plane failed, the campaign plan failed. The public punctured the cycle in 2014”, a reference to SP’s election symbol.
As per rumours in political galleries, the farmers’ stir has given a new chance at revival to the RLD in its political bastion of Western UP and its alliance with the Samajwadi Party is posing a big threat to the BJP which did extremely well in 2017 here. The saffron party won 83 out of the 108 seats in Western UP, which means three out of every four seats – a strike rate of 76 per cent.
The BJP is now leaving no stone unturned in its fight for Western UP seats. All of its top leaders are holding rallies throughout the region, from carrying out door-to-door campaigns to holding meetings with local party workers.
The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases, starting from February 10 and ending on March 7. The polling in UP will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7.