"Laal Topi Is Red Alert For UP": PM Targets Akhilesh Yadav In Gorakhpur

Samajwadi leader Akhilesh Yadav has become a target of increasing BJP attacks as his rallies draw record crowds. Today his trademark red cap became the bullseye for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who described it at a "danger signal" and "red alert" at an official event , and even suggested that the Samajwadi party sympathized with terrorists.

Speaking in Gorakhpur -- the bastion of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath -- at a state function, PM Modi said, "The whole of UP knows that "laal topi waalon" (the red caps) are only interested in red lights," referring to the  red beacons on top of government vehicles that have come to symbolize power and VIP status.

"These people only need power for scams, for encroachment, 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 revived fertilizer factory and a fully functional AIIMS.

Akhilesh Yadav responded sharply. "The red alert for the BJP is over rising prices, unemployment, the bad condition of farmers and labourers; Over Hathras, Lakhimpur and harassment of women and youth. A destroyed education system, trade and health and also over the 'red cap' that will throw them out of power this time," his said in a Hindi tweet.

The Prime Minister had started by taking on the earlier governments of the state, accusing them of being "two-faced".

"They knew how important the Gorakhpur fertilizer plant was for this area. But they showed no interest in restarting them. Those running the government before 2017 made all kinds of excuses in allotting land for the AIIMS," he said.

This, he pointedly said, is a "sound reply to those people who like raising issues on timing" -- in reference to Mr Yadav's allegations of the BJP-led government taking credit for expressways and highways that started in his tenure.

"When such projects get completed, it takes years of labour," PM Modi said.  "These people will not understand that even in the times of Covid, our government kept on doing development works. These people have long forgotten the ideals of Lohia," he added.

Then he scaled up the attack, referring to the Samajwadi Party chief and his supporters as "lal topiwallahs".

Citing the "double engine" BJP government in the state, PM Modi had said said, "Today all mafias are in jail and investors are coming to UP whole heartedly... The start of the fertilizer plant and the AIIMS shows that when there is a 'double engine ki sarkar' then work happens at double pace. When there is a government that thinks about the poor, its work reflects that concern."

In reply to the charge, which the BJP keeps reiterating, Akhilesh Yadav had accused the BJP-led Centre of stunting the growth of Uttar Pradesh.

Had the Centre passed the proposal of Firozabad airport during the Samajwadi Party rule, the development in Uttar Pradesh would have progressed towards perfection, he said.

A tweet from him read: "If the BJP government at the Centre would not have stopped the proposal of Firozabad airport during the SP government, then at this time 'churis' (bangles) would also have got a chance to be associated with 'jewar' (jewellery) and the development of Uttar Pradesh government would have progressed towards perfection".