BJP questions SP-Cong tie-up, ups ante on UP's law & order

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday questioned the pre-poll alliance of the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) and said the tie-up was an "opportunistic alliance to try and grab power".

A day after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav attacked the BJP, the party said the two had come together to plunder the state coffers.

It also upped ante on the law and order problems in the state.

"On a day when these two leaders were justifying their coming together and claiming that UP loved their joining the hands (UP ko ye saath pasand hai) in a five-star hotel in the state capital a village pradhan was killed brutally, a lawyer was murdered in Allahabad and a blind girl in Allahabad was gang-raped," BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla said.

He said if "this is the credo of the SP – Kaam bolta hai (Work speaks), the BJP had very little to say".

"This government has only patronised criminals, mafia, rapists and land grabbers," alleged BJP state General Secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak, who tweaked the three Ps -- Prosperity, Peace and Progress -- slogan given by the Gandhi scion.

"There P stands for Power, Parivaar and Propanganda," he said.