Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sought to sow the seeds of rift between allies the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, as he raked up the “assassination attempt” on Mulayam Singh in 1984 in which a Congress leader was allegedly involved.
Addressing an election rally here, he questioned SP chief Akhilesh Yadav how he could form a coalition with “those who tried to murder” his father.
On March 4, 1984, Mr. 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.
Mr. Modi said Mr. Akhilesh Yadav lacked experience and hence did not know, unlike his father, how “cunning Congress people are”.
‘Foe-turned-friend’
Mocking the alliance between the SP and the Congress, Mr. Modi likened it to a movie in which rivals befriend each other after the “interval”. “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 those who tried to murder one’s father?...,” Mr. Modi said.
Recalling the incident, Mr. Modi said, “Fed up of attacks by Mulayam Singh as Leader of the Opposition in Vidhan Parishad, the 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 before sitting in the lap of Congress.”
Reaching out to voters in Kannauj which falls in the Lok Sabha constituency represented by Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav, Mr. Modi said: “SP-Cong tie-up will shatter your dreams.”
