Mulayam calls Congress corrupt; India's growth story over, says BJP

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at the UPA government, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said, "India does not deserve the lack-lustre non-performing UPA government led by Dr Manmohan Singh."

Stating that trade bodies are also questioning the way India is being governed by the Manmohan Singh led government, Prasad said that India's growth story is over. "The country is fed up with rising prices and corruption because of the Congress, there is no remote possibility that the country would want Manmohan Singh as PM again," Prasad added.

According to Prasad, the nine years that Manmohan Singh has spent as Prime Minister is a matter of public concern. "Third Front is history in the politics of India, it has no relevance in the present or any future," he said.

Criticizing the Congress-led alliance, Ravi Shankar Parsad said, "Management, mechanisation, manipulation and abuse of power is the basis of the UPA rule."

Commenting on Mulayam Singh Yadav's statement of calling the Congress corrupt, Prasad questioned why the Samajwadi Party does not withdraw support from the government.

Meanwhile, Mulayam Singh Yadav claims he has information that the next Lok Sabha elections will be advanced to November, stirring the poll cauldron while lashing out at rivals and potential allies alike.

Yadav, whose party lends outside support to the ruling coalition at the Centre, has described Congress as untrustworthy and sought to make light of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's acclaim as the leader who restored governance in the state. "Nitish Kumar has filled up potholes in the state and that is being described as development," Yadav said at a meeting of SP activists in Lucknow on Thursday.

The statement came in the wake of the Congress leadership's attempts to woo Kumar in an apparent effort to reduce its dependence on SP and its rival in UP, Mayawatiled BSP, which also lends outside support to the central government. Yadav claimed at a Holi function in his native place Saifai that special funds had been given to Bihar while none were offered to Uttar Pradesh. "Whose money is this? It is not the central government's. Congress is untrustworthy," he said.

"Remember the next elections are very important. The government in Delhi is everything. The central government is like the collector, the state government is only a small patwari (clerk)," Yadav said, "Akhilesh has become the chief minister; now, you must accord some status on me also. If we win the Lok Sabha polls, we will have our say in the central government and make it function according to our needs."