The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has cautioned the Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on his party’s alliance with the Congress calling the grand old party a Bhasmasur – a demon who, according to the Hindu mythology, can finish anyone by putting his hands on his head. The Congress party, warned the BJP, will ‘finish’ the Samajwadi Party soon.
“Congress is like Bhasmasur. It will gobble up your (Akhilesh) party . Congress always uses smaller parties to win elections …be careful,” UP BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary said during the party’s state executive meeting in Lucknow on July 14.
The Congress and the SP are part of opposition INDIA bloc and contested Lok Sabha elections together. The two parties are expected to contest the 2027 assembly elections in alliance too.
“The Congress party had its eyes on the Muslim vote bank of the SP.” Chaudhary said in the meeting attended by BJP’s national president JP Nadda.
Akhilesh Yadav responded saying negative people could only talk negative things. “It does not sound good when people who have a history of betraying their own people since before independence talk about the future of relationships. Negative people always think negatively,” Yadav wrote in Hindi on X.
आज़ादी के पहले से जिनका इतिहास अपनों को धोखा देने का रहा है, उनके मुँह से किसी के संबंधों के भविष्य के बारे में बातें अच्छी नहीं लगतीं। नकारात्मक लोग, नकारात्मक ही सोचते हैं।
‘इंडिया’ सकारात्मक है, सकारात्मक ही रहेगा।
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) July 14, 2024
The meeting adopted a political resolution that the opposition parties spread falsehood on the issue of reservation which affected the performance of the BJP.
‘Outside Interference’
The party attributed its poor performance in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections to ‘overconfidence’ and outside interference. It, however, admitted that there the support shifted in favour of the opposition’s INDIA bloc due to division of votes along caste lines.
“The opposition and foreigners used social media to conspire against us,” Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said at the meeting. Adityanath urged party workers to use social media extensively to counter rumours and falsehood.
Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP could win just 33, down from 62, which it won in 2019. The vote share of the party came down from 49.98 percent in 2019 to 41.37 percent in 2024.
Adityanath exuded confidence that the BJP would return to power in the state in the 2027 Assembly polls.
In the meeting, the BJP also sought an apology from senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi allegedly demeaning the Hindus. “Rahul Gandhi would have banned the word Hindu if he had come to power,” the party said in its resolution.