Prime Minister Narendra Modi today exuded confidence about a victory in Uttar Pradesh -- a state Amit Shah said will decide the fate of the country -- and dismissed the opposition alliance stitched by main challenger Akhilesh Yadav as the "game of two boys" that has been seen before. In an exclusive interview to news agency ANI, he indicated that the alliance this time -- between the Samajwadi Party chief and Jat leader Jayant Chaudhary -- will meet a similar end.
Without naming the tie-up between Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress's Rahul Gandhi, which got crushed by the BJP five years ago, he said, "They had such arrogance that they used the words 'Gujarat ke do gadhe' (Two donkeys from Gujarat). Uttar Pradesh taught them a lesson."
"Another time there were "two boys" and a "bua-ji" with them. Still, it didn't work out for them," the Prime Minister said, in further reference to the opposition dynamics.
He also repeated the "fake socialism" and "dynastic" jibes at the SP chief. The two, in fact, are one and the same, he said. Calling dynastic politics the "biggest enemy of democracy", he said "fake Samajwadi denotes parivarvad (dynastic rule)".
"When I talk of fake socialism, it is about dynasty. Can you see Lohia ji's, George Fernandes', Nitish Kumar's families? They're socialists," he added.
Uttar Pradesh goes to polls tomorrow. The first phase of elections will be on 58 seats in western Uttar Pradesh, amid speculation about a possible backlash by farmers. A substantial portion of farmers belong to the Jat community, who voted for the BJP in 2017, delivering 53 of the 58 seats to the party.
Brushing off speculation about anti-incumbency in the state, the Prime Minister said there is "pro-incumbency" in all five states going to polls and the theory that a party cannot repeat victory in consecutive polls in Uttar Pradesh, has been rejected.
"We won in 2014. We were then voted (to power) in 2017 & 2019. So the old theory has been rejected by UP. They accepted us in 2014, 2017 and 2019. They'll accept us in 2022 after seeing our work," PM Modi added.
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