SP Minister dares Modi to take him on in Meerut

Samajwadi Party Cabinet Minister Shahid Manzoor on Sunday dared BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to contest against him from Meerut instead of looking for a “safe seat in Varanasi.”

“If there is a Modi wave in the country then why doesn’t he contest from Meerut and stop looking for a safe seat? I will not run away if he contests from here.”.

The Minister was responding to queries on whether he would seek another seat from his party if Mr. Modi was to contest from the Meerut.

Mr. Manzoor also challenged BJP president Rajnath Singh to fight from Ghaziabad, amid speculation that Mr. Singh could shift to Lucknow, considered a safe seat for the BJP. The BJP’s top leaders are afraid of losing elections; so they are looking for safer seats, he said, while calling the “Modi wave” a media creation.

The BJP hit back at the SP leader, saying he was “desperate for TRP.”

“It’s up to the party to decide where Modiji contests from. We already have a sitting MP [Rajendra Agarwal] in Meerut, the SP minister should first know how to deal with him,” said BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak.

Ajit also takes on Modi

In a rally at Amroha, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh on Sunday also took a dig at Mr. Modi for his “56-inch chest” comment saying that “nobody [in west U.P.] is afraid” of Mr. Modi’s chest size. “If Modi comes here then people will teach him a lesson. If a ruler doesn’t have place for poor in his heart then he cannot be a good ruler.”

Mr. Singh alleged that the State government planned riots in west U.P. in a bid to destroy its social and economic fabric. “Creating an environment of secularism is our responsibility otherwise this fertile part of the state will be destroyed.”

While reiterating his demand to divide U.P., he said: “This State is running without the head. There are only five countries which have population more than U.P. and it has become necessary to divide this State into four parts. In a small State people can communicate much easily with their representatives.”

He also flayed the SP government for its law and order and crisis faced by sugarcane farmers.