Attacking Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the CM-candidate is "insecure" about his seat and had to plead to his father, whom he had "humiliated" to capture the party, to save him from defeat in the constituency.
"You can gauge the direction of wind... The seat, which these people were considering as the safest, is also getting out of their reach," Modi said in an apparent reference to the Karhal seat from where Yadav is contesting in the family-stronghold of Mainpuri.
Ahead of polling in the third phase, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had campaigned for his son Akhilesh Yadav on the seat though he has maintained a low profile during this election.
The Karhal seat with a majority of Muslim and Yadav voters is considered safe for the Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav as the communities have over the years favoured the SP in the caste-dominated politics of Uttar Pradesh.
Modi targeted Akhilesh Yadav who was seen in a video purportedly pushing Mulayam Singh Yadav on the stage during a power struggle within the party before 2017 assembly elections.
"You must have seen, the father who was pushed from the stage was humiliated and the party was captured, he had to plead to him for saving the seat," the prime minister said.
Batting for a second term for Yogi Adityanath as the next chief minister, Modi said, "Today in UP there is only one echo everywhere- '2017 me haraya tha, 2022 me phir se harayenge, UP ke log keh rahe hain yogiji ko layenge" ( People of UP are saying that you will be defeated in 2022 as in 2017, and we will bring Yogiji again).