Lucknow: The BSP-Samajwadi Party experiment in the heartland has been greeted with two telltale responses: the polarisation card and a vituperative outburst.

If Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has projected himself as a protector of Holi from being swallowed up by the Friday prayers of Muslims, one of his cabinet colleagues has cast Mulayam Singh Yadav, his family members and Mayawati as reincarnations of villainous characters from the Ramayana.

With Aditayanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya looking amused, minister Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi told a rally on Sunday: "After killing Ravan, Ram had said the demon king would be born in Kalyug as Mulayam Singh Yadav and his younger brother Kumbhakaran as Shivpal Yadav. Meghnad would be born as Akhilesh Yadav and Surpanakha as Mayawati."

Controversy had erupted last month when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was perceived as obliquely comparing Congress member Renuka Chowdhury to Surpanakha in Parliament after she had guffawed at one his claims on the origins of the Aadhaar scheme.

The rally where Adityanath and others spoke on Sunday was held in Phulpur, the parliamentary seat besides Gorakhpur where the BSP has announced support for arch-rival Samajwadi Party for the March 11 by-elections.

The Other Backward Classes and Dalits - core voters of the Samajwadis and the BSP - make up 75 per cent of the electorate in Phulpur and 70 per cent in Gorakhpur. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav thanked the BSP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal for supporting his party candidates in Phulpur and Gorakhpur.

Adityanath told the rally: "I was told that Holi (celebrated on March 2 in Uttar Pradesh) and Jumu'ah (Friday prayers) were coinciding this year. (Officials) said they were trying to ensure that the Holi celebrations were completed by 11am (when Friday prayers usually start).

"I replied that Holi comes once a year... and asked them to shift the timing of the Jumu'ah by two hours because it comes 52 times a year. I asked them to allow Holi celebrations fully and appeal to Muslim clerics to postpone Jumu'ah by two hours.... I thank them (the clerics) for doing so."

In a first, the state's imams had on February 28 declared that the Friday prayers on March 2 would start at 1pm, after Holi celebrations. Usually, Holi is allowed till 2pm at public places but this year Adityanath's administration curtailed it by an hour.

A BSP leader has submitted an application with a police station, seeking an FIR against Nandi.