Akhilesh should welcome PM Modi with open arms: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday advised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi in state capital Lucknow, rather than passing comments on his visit.

"Instead of passing comments on Prime Minister Modi's visit, being the chief minister of the state, Akhilesh Yadav should have welcomed the prime minister in his state capital. If the state and the Centre will not have co-ordination, then the development of the state will be hampered," BJP national council member Swami Prasad Maurya told ANI.

Maurya said that in the past, prime ministers' have visited some place or the other on the occasion of Dussehra and Prime Minister Modi attending a function in Lucknow should not be objected to.

Yesterday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav dubbed Prime Minister Modi's upcoming visit to the state capital to attend the Dussehra celebrations as politically motivated with an eye on the upcoming state assembly polls.

Echoing similar sentiments, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Sunday dubbed Prime Minister's Modi's visit to Lucknow a political stunt and said that the event should have been toned down taking into account the loss suffered by the families of soldiers killed in the Uri terror attack.

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit Lucknow and attend Dussehra festivities at the historic Aishbagh Ramlila ground on October 11.