Lucknow: PM Modi loves metaphors. Mocking at the Samajwadi Party’s red headgear, he declared on Tuesday: Laal topi means laal batti (red beacon), thereby suggesting that the party was only interested in pelf and power.
Stretching the analogy further, he described the ominous tendencies which the SP was showing as a "danger signal" and "red alert." Not holding back his punches, he fired a salvo at the leadership, saying that it sympathizes with terrorists.
"These people only need power for scams, for illegal encroachments, to give a free run to mafias. The red caps want to form the government to get terrorists released from jail... The red caps are red alerts for Uttar Pradesh... the danger alarm," he added in his address at the inauguration of a fertilizer factory and a fully operational AIIMS at Gorakhpur – CM Yogi’s pocket borough.
Replying in kind, Akhilesh Yadav, who was in Meerut to address a joint rally with Choudhury, said Samajwadi Party’s ascendance is a ‘red alert’ for the BJP whose days in power are numbered. "Looking at the anger among the people, the BJP can even lose 400 seats. They will be wiped out in western UP," he declared with a degree of finality.
The two leaders also debunked the BJP claims of development, which it has made the centrepiece of the election. Yadav said in zest: "The older tradition was -- hit the coconut on the road and the coconut breaks. The new tradition they have started is – hit the coconut on ground and the ground must break."
The reference was to the inauguration in Bijnor when bits of a 7-km asphalt road, renovated at a cost of Rs 1.16 crore, came off when struck by a coconut. But the two leader’s witticisms were reserved for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. "Everything about the BJP is fake. All their promises are fake. They [BJP] are a fake flower which cannot ever be a source of fragrance," Yadav said, taking a dig at ‘lotus’ -- the BJP's poll mascot.
With that, the two leaders -- Akhilesh and Jayant – also formally announced their electoral alliance. Jayant said the alliance would ensure ouster of the ‘double engine’ government of the BJP and give a new dimension to the politics in the state
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