Akhilesh backs Rahul Gandhi's remarks on strikes, takes a dig at PM

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has backed Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s ‘khoon ki dalali’ remarks, saying the Congress leader must have said it after much thought.

Describing his relationship with Gandhi as very good, Yadav said: “I don’t know about the Congress, but I enjoy good relations with Rahul Gandhi. If he has said something, he must have given it much thought. He may have some information.”

The Samajwadi Party leader said that he had visited families of martyred soldiers and helped them.

“Ultimately, the poor lost their lives, the farmers are dying, their sons are dying, so what do they know about surgical strikes?

The question is if you and I have good ties but the relations on border are strained, the country and the world are unable to understand it.” While addressing a farmers’ rally in New Delhi last week Gandhi had taken a jibe at the NDA government by saying it was ‘profiteering’ from the blood of martyred soldiers.

Yadav took a dig at Modi for attending the Dussehra festivities in Lucknow: “Had there been elections in Bihar, he would have slayed Ravan there.”

A day earlier, Yadav had said there should not be any politics over Dussehra and the state should expect a big gift from the PM who was visiting the state for the festival.

On the merger of Mukhtar Ansari’s Quami Ekta Dal with SP, he said: “You know well my views on this.” He distributed cheques of `15 lakh each to families of 18 persons, who went missing after Muzaffarnagar riots.

He said that no one wanted riots but such an “atmosphere was created.”