Mayawati, Akhilesh accuse PM of trying to create rift in alliance

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."