NDA leaders now talking of fractured verdict in UP: Akhilesh

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his fractured mandate remark, saying those talking about getting 300 of the 403 seats are now giving indications of a coalition government.

"Earlier the PM and his party leaders were claiming that they will win 300 seats but till the time elections reached Mau they are talking about coalition government...Modi did not come to Azamgarh as he knew that SP was getting all the 10 seats in the district," the SP leader said.

He was addressing an election rally where he referred to Modi's remark during an election meeting in Mau yesterday that the SP and the BSP were playing a game to ensure that the state throws up a fractured mandate so that they can have bargaining power.

Also, NDA partner and Union minister Ramdas Athawale of RPI(A) had yesterday stated that "in case the BJP fails to get full majority on its own, the BSP needs to extend unconditional support and also think about taking the deputy chief minister's post." Terming as wrong the prime minister's comment that power supply in areas where polling has taken place has been cut, Akhilesh said before making any comment on it he should have checked facts with the districts concerned.

"These elections are elections for the future of the state and people's future is also attached with it. I had asked the BJP and the Prime Minister that in the districts where they are holding programmes they need to tell what all they have done for it. It has been three years and no one has dared to state it," Akhilesh said.