UP Polls: SP Chief Slams CM Yogi, Declares To Contest From Gorakhpur

SP Chief slams CM Yogi on "80 vs 20" jabs

Lucknow: Minutes after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said to contest his election from Gorakhpur as it's his stronghold, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav hit out at CM Yogi.

While targeting the UP CM, Mr Akhilesh said, "Earlier they used to sometimes say 'he will fight from Ayodhya' or 'he will fight from Mathura' or 'he will fight from Prayagraj'... now see... I like that the BJP has already sent him (the Chief Minister) to Gorakhpur. Yogi should stay there... there is no need for him to come from there."

Looking into the Uttar Pradesh's Assembly polls fever, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party has emerged as perhaps the biggest challenge to the BJP's UP re-election bid, with the former Chief Minister's "rainbow" alliance of regional parties from eastern UP (and, hopefully, votes from angry farmers from the west) threatening to oust the ruling party.

The two - Mr Yadav and Yogi Adityanath - have been locked in a bitter spat over the past few weeks and months; yesterday the Samajwadi leader aimed a series of jabs at his rival over the "80 vs 20" comment that was widely interpreted as a hint at the Hindu-Muslim ratio.

"Yogi Adityanath meant BJP 'will get 20 per cent of seats in UP while the rest 80 per cent will go to the Samajwadi Party," Mr Yadav commented, as he welcomed five ex-BJP MLAs - all of whom had resigned this week in a seemingly to move to his party.

Apart from his swipe at Yogi, Mr Yadav also presented his version of events regarding the breakdown in seat-sharing talks with Chandrashekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party.

"He (Mr Azad) came to me yesterday (and) said he will contest. I gave Ghaziabad and Rampur Maniharan seats after talking to Lok Dal. Then he came, after talking to someone on the phone, and said he cannot fight... Whose phone was that? Who conspired?" he declared.

"This is why we are saying now that we will not take any more leaders into the Samajwadi Party... We sacrificed a lot to bring people together (but) now there is no scope to take anyone else."

Earlier this morning, Bhim Army Chief declared not to have an alliance with SP in UP Polls.