Lucknow, May 5; PTI/GANASHAKTI: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi charged the SP with going soft on the Congress as part of a "big game" against the BSP, the two "mahagathbandhan" partners blamed the PM on Sunday for trying to create a rift in the alliance.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati said the alliance "will continue in the future as well", while Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said the prime minister was "misleading" people.
Their rebuttal came against the backdrop of Modi saying at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh on Saturday that the SP was "going soft" on the Congress, though Mayawati was attacking the grand old party.
He also claimed that the SP had benefitted due to the alliance and "Behenji" (Mayawati) had now understood that the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and the Congress were playing a "big game" with her.
Hitting back at the prime minister, Mayawati said, "Since the formation of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, the BJP is facing an unprecedented crisis. It is suffering from a stomachache and it will not be able to get it cured in the future also.
"Our alliance will continue in the future as well. The prime minister has spoken about the divide-and-rule policy, which is baseless. Their aim is to make us fight each other and misguide our supporters. But our alliance will uproot the anti-people government."
Stating that for the BSP, the Congress and the BJP were two sides of the same coin, she said, "Despite this, we decided not to field candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi, and left it for the top leaders of the Congress, so as to weaken the BJP and the RSS."
It was decided much in advance that the alliance would not field any candidate in these two seats, so that its top leaders did not remain confined to these two constituencies and could focus on their campaign at other places, she added.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi is contesting the ongoing Lok Sabha polls from Amethi, while UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is in the fray from Rae Bareli. Both the constituencies, known as Gandhi family strongholds, go to the polls on May 6.
Yadav too accused Modi of creating a rift between the SP and the BSP, saying this was a result of his disappointment.
"The language of the prime minister has changed as in every phase (of the polls), the BJP is trailing. It is unable to find a way out. The PM only wants to misguide the voters.
"I would like to tell the BJP that the SP-BSP-RLD alliance will decide as to who will form the next government and who will be the new prime minister," he said.
The SP chief coined a new phrase for Modi, describing him as a "180-degree prime minister".
"Modi is a 180-degree prime minister. Whatever he says, he does just the opposite. He had promised to double the
income of farmers, but it has come down to half. Similarly, he had promised to create two crore jobs, but in reality, has made two crore people jobless," he said.
Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP is contesting 38, the SP 37 and the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) three, while Amethi and Rae Bareli have been left for the Congress.
The SP-BSP alliance in the politically crucial state, which sends the highest number of lawmakers to the Lok Sabha, is being seen as a challenge to the BJP, which had won 71 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 polls.
At the Pratapgarh rally, Modi had also said the alliance partners would be at each other's throats after the results of the polls were announced on May 23.
He had pointed out that while Mayawati was openly targeting the Congress and its policies, a leader of the grand old party was sharing the stage with the SP.
The reference was apparently to Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's presence at an SP meeting in Rae Bareli on Thursday.
"The SP is going soft on the Congress, but its alliance partner, BSP chief Mayawati, is attacking the Congress," Modi had said, adding that the SP had benefitted due to the tie-up.
"It was said that you (Mayawati) will be made the prime
minister, but now 'Behenji' has understood that the SP and the Congress are playing a big game with her," he had said.
The prime minister had also said the Congress was reduced to the status of a "vote-katwa" (one that eats into the vote share of others) party.
