Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has said that he wants a prime minister from Uttar Pradesh and also hinted that he is ready to back Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati as Opposition's prime ministerial face, without taking her name.
According to a report in The Times of India, the SP chief said that the next prime would come from the gathbandhan (alliance) and that he would be happy if it is a woman. SP and BSP are contesting the general election in an alliance.
"Desh ka agla pradhan mantri gathbandhan dega aur hum to chahenge ki koi agar aadhi aabadi se ban jaye to usse achchhi koi baat nahi hogi (The alliance will give the country its next Prime Minister and I would be very happy if it comes from the other half of the population," Akhilesh said.
Talking to NDTV, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said he wanted the next prime minister to come from the state. He, however, rejected the possibility of a prime minister coming from Varanasi. "It should not be the Banaras (Varanasi) people... He has greatly harmed the country," Akhilesh said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking re-election from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.
Akhilesh’s comment came after PM Modi’s election rally in Pratapgarh on May 4, in which the prime minister had alleged that the Samajwadi Party was "going soft" on the Congress, as opposed to the BSP, which was attacking the grand old party.
Mayawati also rubbished PM Modi charge, saying that he was trying to drive a wedge between SP and BSP by highlighting their different approaches towards the Indian National Congress.
The BSP chief also said that the "frustrated" leaders of the BJP were trying to create fissures in the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
"The BJP is frustrated and is trying to create fissures in the alliance," she said, claiming that the joint candidates of the alliance were way ahead of the saffron party nominees in the four phases of polling that had concluded then.
Akhilesh, who had earlier floated the idea of his father and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav as the prime ministerial face, has now shown full support to Mayawati.
SP and BSP have forged a pre-poll alliance for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP is contesting 38, the SP 37 and the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) three. No candidate has been fielded by the Mahagathbandhan in Amethi and Rae Bareli where Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi are contesting, respectively.
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