"Bad Weather... Or?" Akhilesh Yadav Ally Claims PM Opted Out Of Rally

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's ally Jayant Chaudhary taunted the BJP today as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first physical rally in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, was cancelled on account of bad weather and he addressed a virtual rally instead.  Mr Chaudhary, who has a substantial support base among the Jats and farmers in western Uttar Pradesh, said the BJP is just not ready to face the people after failing to keep their promises.

"The BJP had earlier promised better electricity and development in Bijnor. If the Prime Minister had visited them today, the people would have asked questions. So suddenly BJP's weather turned bad," he said at a rally in Meerut Cantonment.

Soon after the BJP announcement of PM's rally cancellation, Mr Chaudhary had tweeted a screenshot of a weather app. "The sun is shining in Bijnor, but BJP's weather is bad!" read the accompanying post.

The Jat leader also took a swipe at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his comment that he will "cool down" other parties.

The Chief Minister had earlier tweeted a jibe at the Samajwadi Party, whose candidate from Kairana, Nahid Hasan, was arrested last month under the Gangster Act.

"Tamanchawadi Party's (Gun-wielding party) candidate from Kairana is threatening, that is, the heat has not calmed down yet! After March 10, the heat will calm down..." Yogi Adityanath had tweeted.

"They want us to cool down but there is a lot of heat here. They want to talk about Jinnah but we want to talk about jobs and sugarcane dues," Jayant Chaudhary said.

Accusing the government of failing to industrialize the area, Mr Chaudhary said all help, instead, is being given to actor Kangana Ranaut. "Photos of Kangana Ranaut are being clicked. She has been made the ambassador of an industrial scheme," he said.

In his virtual address today, PM Modi said the "river of development" had stopped in Uttar Pradesh before 2017 due to the dynastic approach of "fake samajwadis'.

The "river of development" is seen a reference to the flooding of periodic flooding of Ganga in the area. One of the main grouses of local farmers is that the government is yet to help control the flooding.

The Yogi Adityanath government, PM Modi said, has worked for the development of all regions of the state equally without any discrimination. The state, he added, has paid over Rs 1.5 lakh crore sugarcane dues to farmers which is more than the money paid by earlier two governments in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

The voting will be held in the first phase on February 10.