Desperate elements have joined 'hands' with punctured 'wheels': BJP

In first public appearance after SP, Cong formalised alliance, Gandhi and Akhilesh justified tie-up

Coming down heavily on the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said desperate elements have joined hands with punctured wheels and are claiming to win 300 seats.

BJP leader S Prakash said that the Congress used to earlier launch attacks on the Samajwadi Party government but the narrative has now changed.

"Just days before this development, Congress was making a scathing attack on Yadav's government. Posters and hoardings were put up against this government. Overnight, this narration was changed to pad up an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. Two desperate elements have joined hands and are claiming to win 300 seats," he said.

Further criticising Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's remark of branding 70 per cent of Punjab's youth as drug addicts, Prakash said that repetitions of such claims by both the Congress vice-president and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal paints a bad image of the youth of Punjab and unnecessarily bringing bad name to the Badals.

In the first public appearance after the Samajwadi Party and Congress formalised the poll alliance, Gandhi and Akhilesh justified the tie-up.

Declaring that their combined objective was to "defeat the fascist forces," respond to "politics of hate" and counter divisive ideology, the two leaders said that the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance would usher in a "storm of development".

Both leaders resorted to symbolism to drive home their point.

Gandhi said that he shared both a "personal and political relationship" with Akhilesh and their coming together was akin to the "meeting of the Ganga and Yamuna at the Sangam".

Akhilesh, in turn, pronounced that they were "two wheels of the cycle."

The leaders also released the joint campaign slogan: UP ko yeh saath pasand hai (UP relishes this alliance).

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, the Congress will be contesting in 105 seats and the Samajwadi Party will field its candidates in rest of the 298 seats.