Branding the newly forged alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress as 'unholy' formed on negativity alone, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday stated that coalition had not been created to usher development in Uttar Pradesh, but only to keep the two "dying dynasties" intact.
"The alliance has been formed to prevent the BJP from coming to power and to keep the two dying dynasties intact. Mulayam Singh Yadav's dynasty is coming to an end because the Samajwadi Party cannot win in UP and you know what is happening to the Congress, with Rahul Gandhi getting rejected everywhere. So the two dynasties have come together to protect their interest and are trying to camouflage this in the name of development," BJP leader Sudesh Verma told ANI here.
Meanwhile, indicating that the SP-Congress alliance may continue beyond the UP polls, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Thursday that the alliance may broaden to accommodate more like-minded, secular parties.
"The SP-Congress alliance will continue in 2019 Lok Sabha elections as our parties realise that if we want to strengthen the secular base of UP, then we need to be together," he said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and said the Samajwadi Party president had made a lot of promises in the past but had failed to deliver on them.
"Akhilesh Yadav was busy striking alliances when he should have been working for the state's development," he said at a BJP rally in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh.
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Taking a dig at the SP's 'Kaam Bolta Hai' slogan, the Prime Minister brought up the high rates of crime in the state when he remarked, "You say 'Kaam Bolta Hai' (Work speaks for itself) but projects are incomplete. What is speaking volumes are the instances of women harassment in the state."
Uttar Pradesh will be voting for a new state assembly in a seven-phase election between February 11 and March 8. Out of the 403 assembly seats, Congress will be contesting in 105 seats and the Samajwadi Party will field its candidates in rest of the 298 seats.