SP, BSP want hung House in UP so they can have bargain power, says PM

Eyeing defeat in the polls , Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the SP and the BSP have launched a new game plan for a fractured mandate in Uttar Pradesh so that they can have bargaining power.

"The SP and the BSP, after the third phase of polling, have realised that they have no chance of winning and so they have launched a new game, a new technique...even if we are defeated or our seats decrease, no one should get majority," he said at an election rally in this eastern UP town.

"I want to tell the leaders of the SP and the BSP to try whatever means they can to defeat the BJP, there is no problem with it...but do not play with the future of UP. It has suffered a lot in the past," Modi said in his over hour-long speech.

"You (SP, BSP) might be thinking that in case of a hung House, you will get a chance to bargain but the people of UP have shown you in the Lok Sabha polls, by ensuring a full majority to BJP, and in these elections, they will ensure that BJP wins with a huge margin," Modi said.

The prime minister said it is the right of the SP, the Congress and the BSP in democracy to try to win elections by doing whatever they want against the BJP.

"When the polls were announced and the SP got afraid that they will not win, in a hurry they went and sat in the lap of the Congress...boarded a sinking ship. They got encouraged by media coverage and got intoxicated and thought they will befool the people," Modi said.

However, public knows how to differentiate milk from water, he said. On the hype on the SP-Congress alliance, Modi said soon after entering into an understanding they were claiming they will get a two-thirds majority and there were also reports that "certain people" will come out for campaigning.

"But soon after the first two phases, those very people decided to stay away from campaigning and those who were claiming a two-thirds majority came with folded hands asking for another chance to correct their mistakes," Modi said. PTI