UP Has Seen "Do Ladkon Wala Khel": PM Modi Takes Dig At Rival Alliance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a dig at Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhury who are contesting the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in an alliance and said the state had earlier seen the "game of two boys" and 'buaji' too was with them but the people of the state rejected the alliance.

"Ye do ladkon wala khel to humne pehle bhi dekha tha (This game of two boys we have seen earlier too. They had so much arrogance that they used the words 'Gujarat's two donkeys'. And the people of Uttar Pradesh showed them the 'hisab'. And then there were these two boys and there was buaji also with them and still, they could not make it," he said in an exclusive interview with ANI.

"Bua" was an apparent reference to Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati by the Prime Minister.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BSP, Samajwadi and RLD had formed an alliance against the BJP. The Congress with its leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party had fought the 2017 assembly polls in the state in an alliance.

The Prime Minister was answering a question about optics in Uttar Pradesh with SP and RLD coming together.

The Prime Minister said the voters will reject the alliance. "Assume that someone gets to contest elections in 25 years, the right to vote becomes applicable when one turns 18, but if a father says that my this son is 10-year-old, this one is 15 -year-old, their age collectively counts 25 so they should be allowed to contest the elections, can this happen? So do you think things go by such calculation?" he asked.

Referring to Congress and Samajwadi Party, he said when a party is run for generations by a family, there's "only dynasty, not dynamics".

"Starting from Jammu and Kashmir, where there are two parties run by two separate families, you can see a similar trend in Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Dynastic politics is the biggest enemy of democracy," he said.

The Prime Minister said BJP has won mandates in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2017 assembly polls and will win the upcoming assembly polls.

Answering a question on party posters in Uttar Pradesh, he said BJP believes in collective leadership. "We are used to working collectively," he said.

Referring to his picture on the posters, he said it was of a BJP worker "who is called Narendra Modi".

He said when people discuss security in Uttar Pradesh, they think of their "troubles during previous governments, mafia raj, gunda raj, the manner in which musclemen had a status and shelter in government".

"Uttar Pradesh saw this from close quarters, women couldn't step out. Today, women say that they can step out even after dark. This trust is essential for security. There was a time in Uttar Pradesh when goons could do anything they wanted, today they surrender. Yogi ji prioritised security and didn't compromise with it," he said.

Answering a query on Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav taking credit for several schemes inaugurated during the rule of the BJP government in the state, the Prime Minister said it was an attempt to encash the good work done by the Yogi Adiyanath government.

"If someone tries to encash Yogiji's hard work and successful schemes, what I understand from it is that his schemes are so wonderful, that he turned impossible into possible, that rivals have also come out to encash it. I consider this Yogiji's credit," he said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)