New Delhi: Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav took a potshot at the BJP today and said that central leadership of the saffron party has become restless ever since he announced a pre-poll tie-up with Mayawati-led BSP.
The young SP president also suggested that the BJP workers in UP appear to have lost all hopes of their party’s victory in the wake of an alliance between the SP and the BSP.
Further taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modis mantra of ‘Mera Mooth Sabse Mazboot’ (my polling booth, the strongest), Akhilesh claimed on Twitter that the BJP workers are now saying ‘Mera Booth, Hua Chaknachoor’ (my polling booth is now splintered).
Akhilesh also claimed that apparently frustrated with the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, many BJP’s leaders and workers were now willing to switch sides ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls.
The SP chief’s latest comment on the ruling BJP came hours after SP and BSP – once arch-rivals – announced their tie-up in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, sharing 38 seats each and keeping the Congress out of the alliance.
The parties, however, said they would not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli, represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
They also left two seats out of the 80 in the state for smaller allies, without naming them. But there have been talks with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal.
In 2014, the BJP had won 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh, which sends the largest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha. BJP ally Apna Dal bagged two. The SP won five seats and the Congress two, while the BSP drew a blank.