SP heading towards tragedy: Venkaiah Naidu

The Urban Development Minister alleged that Akhilesh Yadav government in the state did not send proposal for PM Awas Scheme even after several reminders sent by his ministry.

Lucknow, Feb 3: Terming Congress-SP alliance as "opportunist and immoral", Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said the family drama of ruling Samajwadi Party is "heading towards tragedy from melody and comedy".

"The alliance between Congress and SP is opportunist and immoral. Akhilesh Yadav has made an alliance but did not give space to his father (Mulayam Singh Yadav) even on the carrier of the 'bicycle' (SP symbol) and gave its handle to Congress.

"The family drama of SP is heading towards tragedy from melody and comedy," the senior BJP leader said at a press conference here. Asking voters to discard the alliance, Naidu said if they wanted to remove the tag of "BIMARU" state from Uttar Pradesh, they should shun it and elect BJP.

BIMARU is an acronym formed from the first letters of the names of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. It has a resemblance to a Hindi word "Bimar" which means sick and used to refer to the poor economic conditions in these states. "We will work on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's motto -- reform, perform and transform -- and change the face of UP," Naidu said appealing to people to repeat their 2014-like support to BJP in the assembly polls.

BJP and its ally Apna Dal had bagged 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014. The Urban Development Minister alleged that Akhilesh Yadav government in the state did not send proposal for PM Awas Scheme even after several reminders sent by his ministry.

"We had got a survey done in UP that showed requirement of over 30 lakh houses. When UP was asked, it said requirement was of over 17 lakh houses only. But even after several reminders, we did not get a proposal from the state," he rued. The BJP leader said Uttar Pradesh would progress only if it voted his party to power to enable the state to work in tandem with the BJP-led NDA at the Centre.

PTI