PM rakes up 1984 attack on Mulayam to mock at SP-Cong alliance

Addressing an election rally here, he questioned SP chief Akhilesh Yadav as to how he could form a coalition with "those who tried to murder" his father.

Kannauj (UP), Feb 15: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sought to sow the seeds of rift between allies SP and Congress as he raked up the issue of "assassination attempt" on Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1984 allegedly involving a Congress leader. Addressing an election rally here, he questioned SP chief Akhilesh Yadav as to how he could form a coalition with "those who tried to murder" his father.

He said Akhilesh lacks experience and hence does not know, unlike his father, how "cunning Congress people are". Mocking at the alliance between SP and Congress, Modi likened it to a movie in which rivals befriend each other after the "interval".

"Akhileshji ko abhi anubhav kum hain, Congress wale kitne chatur hain inko samajh nahi aata... Mulayam ji ko toh pata tha (Akhilesh has less experience. He does not understand how cunning Congress people are. Mulayam knew about it)," he said. "I want to ask how Akhilesh forgot the attack carried out on Mulayam Yadav by Congress in 1984... What can be more shameful than befriending tho

se who tried to murder one's father?... They cannot be pardoned," the Prime Minister said. Recalling the incident, Modi said, "Fed up of attacks by Mulayam Singh as Leader of the Opposition in Vidhan Parishad, Congress got shots fired at him on March 4, 1984 but he scraped through...I want to tell Akhilesh that he should have remembered this incident before sitting in the lap of Congress." In a poser to Akhilesh, he asked, "Kya raajneeti itni gir gayi hai ke kursi ke moh mein iss prakaar ke kaand kiye jaaye (has politics degraded to such an extent that for the love of power such a thing would be done)?" On March 4, 1984, Mulayam Singh's car was fired at by some persons while he was on his way from Etawah to Lucknow and the name of a strong Congress leader had figured in the case.

Mocking at the SP-Congress alliance, Modi said, "A film is being played on the political stage of Uttar Pradesh in which the opponents, who had attacked each other with slogans such as '27 saal UP behal' and taken out yatras in the first half, have turned friends after interval and have embraced each other."

He said Samajwadi Party and Congress were campaigning against each other before the announcement of polls "but came together after the interval to enter into the alliance for the elections." Reaching out to voters here in Kannauj which falls in the Lok Sabha constituency represented by Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav, Modi said, "SP-Cong tie up will shatter your dreams."

PTI