SP running away from real issues: BJP on Azam Khan's remark

Condemning the comparison of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with 'Ravana' by senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said that the former's party doesn't want the assembly elections to be contested on real issues and hence, are making such extraneous statements.

"They are keen to somehow try to make extraneous issues the centerpiece and are targeting Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. Issues like hooliganism have not been solved yet. We want the upliftment to be the agenda of Uttar Pradesh and they are running away from it, but the public can see all of this," BJP leader Nalin Kohli told ANI.

On Sunday, Azam Khan drew an allegory between Prime Minister Modi and the mythical demon king Ravana.

"The king who rules over 130 crore Indians goes to Lucknow to burn the effigy of Ravana, but he forgets that the biggest Ravana is not in Lucknow but in Delhi," said Khan while addressing a rally in Rampur.

Earlier, while addressing a rally in Aligarh, Prime Minister Modi coined a new acronym VIKAS, which stands for Vidyut (electricity), Kanoon (law and order) and Sadak (roads). The remark came a day after his 'SCAM' acronym which was set out as a combined attack on both the Samajwadi Party and Congress alliance and Bahujan Samajwadi Party supremo Mayawati.