Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday warned the ruling BJP about leaving behind a culture of misuse of central investigative agencies and said it should be ready to face the same in future.
"When BJP realised that Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party were looking forward to a grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh, they alerted the CBI and started planning to win at least one seat in Uttar Pradesh. BJP is leaving behind the culture of misusing the central investigative agencies and it should be ready to face the same in the future" the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said at the mega opposition rally here led by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
The CBI is probing Akhilesh's role in the illegal sand mining case in Uttar Pradesh during his tenure as Chief Minister, when he had also held the mining portfolio of the state for a year.
The former UP chief minister spoke about the alliance formed by opposition parties to defeat the Modi-led government at the Centre in the upcoming Assembly polls.
"At present, we have an alliance of a few parties. However, we have learnt the art of forming an alliance from the BJP. BJP has an alliance of 40 political parties along with investigative agencies like CBI and ED. They inspired us and now this a beautiful bouquet of opposition parties here," Akhilesh said.
"They formed an alliance to benefit themselves. They know how to use their allies including CBI and ED, however, we are coming together for the people of this country. Our alliance will work for the people not to fulfil our own aspiration," he added.
The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh alleged that BJP plotted against opposition parties and attempted to defame them. "They should be aware that if Tamil Nadu can make BJP zero in their state then they can get the similar results in the other states too," he added.
Referring to the ongoing tussle within the CBI the Samajwadi leader said, "Who will probe the CBI? There is so much fighting within the CBI with several allegations and counter-allegations taking place."
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also took a dig at BJP. "Our party will make BJP zero in Bengal, you (Akhilesh) make it zero in Uttar Pradesh," he said.
Akhilesh also took lashed out at BJP for predicting the impossibility of a grand alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "They said the mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) will never happen in Uttar Pradesh but last week we cleared their doubt. We made the impossible happen and credit goes to the BJP because they made us realise that they need to be defeated in the upcomng general elections," he said.
Continuing his tirade against BJP, Akhilesh said "Those who failed, deceived and betrayed people..... those who conspired and spread hatred...do they have any other name for the prime minister's role?" he asked adding that BJP was disturbing the communal harmony of the country.
Complimenting the TMC leader for hosting the grand meet, Akhilesh said, "We all are present here today to show our strength of unity. We have begun our battle from Bengal and the rest of the country will join. We are confident that we will win 2019 polls and the country will be happy to see a new prime minister.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)