First day, first flop show by BJP: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav held their first joint rally in UP's Amroha, where Yadav expressed optimism over the first phase polling, calling the "first-day first show" of BJP a "flop", and Gandhi spoke at length of Congress' "revolutionary" poll promises like the Mahalakshmi scheme which he said other countries will "queue up" to replicate once implemented in India.

With Congress allotted the Amroha seat, the alliance has fielded sitting MP Danish Ali, who had won this seat in 2019 on a BSP ticket but recently joined the Congress after being expelled from the BSP. Ali had also made news after communal slurs were hurled at him inside the parliament by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri.

Referring to polling in the first phase, Yadav said, "The first day, first-show of BJP is a flop. Nobody wants to listen to their fake stories and jaded dialogues." Yadav spoke of the Rajput protest against the BJP in west UP without explicitly mentioning them. "Some traditional voters of BJP are openly protesting against them now. Panchayats are taking place in every Lok sabha. I thank their political awareness that they are holding panchayats and deciding to defeat the BJP," Yadav said.


BJP Moradabad candidate Dead

BJP candidate from Moradabad Lok Sabha seat Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar, who was unwell for some time, died at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Saturday, a senior party leader said.

He was 72.