Mayawati mocks at jungle raj' after SP's jumbo dig

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party  traded charges as campaigning for the third phase of polling ended on Friday.

Samajwadi Party president and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav termed the BSP an uncontrolled elephant that could do more damage than good to Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking at a rally in Barabanki, the chief minister said that “Raksha Bandhan came after Holi”, referring to a possible alliance between the BJP and the BSP after the results are announced, which would be two days before Holi.

BSP chief Mayawati hit back at the SP during a rally in Fatehpur on Friday, where she said that “jungle raj” was prevailing in Uttar Pradesh.

She alleged that the Akhilesh Yadav government had changed the names of the schemes launched by the BSP government and was now claiming them as his achievements.

Ms Mayawati accused SP patriarch Mulayam Singh of humiliating his brother Shivpal Yadav to protect the interests of his son.

Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, alleged that “people have made me fight with my father Mulayam Singh for vested interests. We allied with the Congress to defeat communal forces. We will not spare those who are responsible for this conspiracy”.

The reference was obviously to his estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav, whose constituency Jaswantnagar also goes to polls in the third phase.

Both Akhilesh Yadav and Ms Mayawati also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the demonetisation issue and for making the people of the country stand in queues. The two leaders accused the BJP of making false promises to the people and failing to fulfil them.

Ms Mayawati warned that if the BJP came to power, it would strip minority education institutions of their minority status, implement uniform civil code and put to an end to reservation.