The war of words between the Congress and the SP-BSP-RLD alliance is likely to escalate in the coming days in Uttar Pradesh with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav starting to target each other.
At an election meeting in Budaun on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that the alliance was indirectly supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh as neither the alliance partners had supported the Congress over Rafale issue nor were they saying a word over corruption in the Narendra Modi regime. Rahul also charged that the SP and BSP with being scared of the BJP.
Though Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati in her speeches criticised the Congress along with BJP in the same voice, Akhilesh has hitherto refrained from making critical comments against the grand old party.
However, on Friday, Akhilesh termed Congress as “desh ki sabse badi dhokebaj party’ and was annoyed with the act of the party against his family.
“The Congress is no different from the BJP. It was during Congress regime that the CBI probe into disproportionate assets case was initiated against Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav), my wife Dimple, and myself. Then the case was closed but now again a Congress leader has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court (in the original disproportionate assets case). We do not fear the CBI or the ED,” Yadav said.
Sources in the SP said in Lucknow on Saturday that the party president was peeved over the presence of Vishwanath Chaturvedi during the filing of nominations of Congress candidate Pramod Krishnam from Lucknow on Thursday.
Chaturvedi was the main petitioner in the CBI probe into disproportionate asset (DA) case against Mulayam, Akhilesh and Dimple which was filed in 2005. He had filed the PIL in 2005 and recently moved a petition in Supreme Court seeking reopening of the DA case against the Yadav family.
“Chaturvedi is one of the proposers of Congress candidate Acharya Pramod Krishnam from Lucknow seat and this has irked the SP president,” the sources said.
Meanwhile, confusion over Congress candidate from Patna Sahib (Bihar) Shatrughan Sinha campaigning for his wife and SP candidate from Lucknow, Poonam Sinha, has also lead to resentment among Congress leaders campaigning for Pramod Krishnam in Lucknow.
Krishnam has already said that Sinha should perform his ‘party dharma’ and should not campaign against Congress when he himself is the Congress candidate from Patna Sahib seat in Bihar
The presence of Shatrughan Sinha with his wife, who id contesting on SP ticket from Lucknow, during filing of nomination papers and on Friday for seeking vote, could lead to further acrimony between SP and Congress leaders.
