Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi's parties are part of the mega INDIA bloc (File)
UP's two sons would make India's politics all about love, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said today to signal his camaraderie with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and in a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Gandhi's witty take, a reference to the "mohabbat ki dukaan" tagline from his pan-India Yatras and the Lok Sabha election campaign, came in response to Mr Yadav's greeting on his 54th birthday.
Rahul Gandhi said, "UP ke do ladke Hindustan ki rajneeti ko mohabbat ki dukaan banayenge - khata-khat, khata-khat (loosely translating to two boys of UP will make India's politics all about love)".
"UP ke do ladke" was a tagline used to underline the coming together of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls when the two parties had joined hands. However, in those elections, the alliance failed miserably and the BJP came to power in the state.
PM Modi had also taken a dig at Gandhi and Yadav during the Lok Sabha election campaign.
Without naming the two leaders, the Prime Minister said, "You might remember here in Uttar Pradesh that the film featuring two boys ('do ladke'), which flopped last time, the film of the two boys has been re-released by these people." Mr Gandhi's remarks came amid talks of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party contemplating continuing the alliance in the bypolls and even later.
With 37 out of 80, the Samajwadi Party won the highest number of seats in Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, giving a record performance since its inception.
Its ally the Congress won six seats while the BJP won 33. The BJP's allies the Rashtriya Lok Dal won two seats and Apna Dal (S) one.
The Congress-Samajwadi Party bonhomie was visible on the ground, with the results proving that the vote transfer between the two allies had also been successful.
Buoyed by the results, the two parties have been talking up the INDIA bloc's coordination in ensuring the BJP did not reach a majority on its own.
The BJP, with 240 seats, fell short of a majority in the Lok Sabha but the National Democratic Alliance secured the mandate with 293 seats. The Congress bagged 99 seats.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)