A day after BSP chief Mayawati termed him a “fake” OBC, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hit back saying the “farzi friendship” of the SP and the BSP will fall apart the day election results are announced.
Also, the PM took a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying the “speed-breaker Didi” has lost sleep after the first two phases of polls. Modi held back-to-back rallies in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh ahead of the third phase of polling, scheduled for April 23.
“You all remember the friendship that was struck during the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh that came to an end with the announcement of the results and turned into rivalry,” he said in Etah referring to the understanding in 2017 between the Congress and the SP.
“The farzi dosti of ‘bua’ and ‘babua’ will also end the same way,” Modi said referring to Mayawati and her SP counterpart Akhilesh Yadav.
“The date of this friendship has also been fixed. After May 23, Thursday, this ‘farzi dosti’ (fake friendship) will fall apart,” he said. “That day ‘bua’ and ‘babua’ will start part 2 of their rivalry,” the PM said.
At the joint rally of the Opposition alliance in Mainpuri on Friday, Mayawati had said it was SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav who was a real backward unlike Modi, who, she alleged, was a ‘farzi’ or ‘naqli’ backward.
Modi took the fight further in a rally in Bareily, where he said the Opposition is now out to ridicule him for being a backward. “In every election, this game on my caste starts whenever they stare at a defeat. We backwards are used to being abused by the dynasts but let me ask them what have they apart from alleviating the poverty of their own families?”
And at a well-attended rally in Buniadpur in West Bengal, where the BJP has emerged as a strong contender, Modi lashed out at TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee saying, “It is shameful that people from neighbouring country are campaigning for the TMC. This was done by the party to appease the minority community.” His remarks came against the backdrop of reports of two Bangladeshi actors campaigning for TMC candidates in Bengal. Both were asked to leave India, subsequently.
While Modi accused the chief minister of fooling people in the name of ‘ma, mati and manush’ (mother, land and people), he flayed her seeking proof of the Balakot air strikes in Pakistan, and asked her to, instead, collect evidence against those behind chit fund scams.
