BJP president Amit Shah addressing an election rally in Azamgarh on Wednesday.
BJP president Amit Shah today quoted senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit on her assessment that Rahul Gandhi "is still not mature and needs some time," asking why then the party has handed him charge of the
complex state of Uttar Pradesh.
"If he is not mature, then why has he been imposed upon Uttar Pradesh? Is this a political laboratory or learning ground for someone?" Mr Shah asked at an election rally in Azamgarh, stating that UP's problems require "men of steel" to solve them.
"The problems of Uttar Pradesh can be solved only under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Mr Shah said, confident that a "BJP tsunami" will help his party get two-thirds majority in the 403-member Assembly and put an end to what he called the "misrule" of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, who have ruled UP by turns for the last 14 years.
"Please remember Rahul is still not mature, his age does not allow him to be mature. He is what... in his forties. Please give him time," Ms Dikshit said in an interview to
The Times of India. The 78-year-old former Delhi Chief Minister was named by the Congress as the party's presumptive Chief Minister for UP, but that arrangement ceased after the party joined hands with the Samajwadi Party, with Akhilesh Yadav as their nominee for the top post.
Mr Shah, who frequently mocks Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi as "
shehzaade" or privileged princes born to political royalty, also said, "It is quite amusing that one prince is giving a tough time to his mother, the other to his father, and both are troubling UP."
Barbs have flown back and forth. To the Prime Minister's comment at a public rally that he is the "adopted son of UP" as a lawmaker from the state, Mr Gandhi's sister Priyanka Gandhi had said last week that the state does not need an adopted son as it has two of its own in Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi.
The stakes are high with the Uttar Pradesh election pegged as a bellwether for the national elections in 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the BJP's campaign.
Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi have campaigned extensively, both together and separately, to take on the BJP with frequent attacks on PM Modi, particularly on the notes ban.
UP is voting in seven rounds, four of which have already been completed. Results will be announced on March 11.