Lucknow, Feb. 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today coined an acronym as he sought to seize the moral high ground in Uttar Pradesh, saying voters in the state must choose between "SCAM" and development.
"SCAM means the Samajwadi, Congress, Akhilesh (Yadav) and Mayawati," the BJP mascot told a rally in Meerut.
The west Uttar Pradesh district votes on February 11 in the first leg of the seven-phase elections in the heartland.
"Uttar Pradesh must choose between scams and the lotus (BJP's election symbol); between scams and development and between scams and a peaceful life," Modi said at his first rally in the state since the elections were announced.
He stressed on the army's surgical strikes across the Line of Control and demonetisation, in an effort to revive the two issues as poll planks in Uttar Pradesh. " Pakistan ki dharti pe jaakar, pai pai ka hisab chukta kar diya (We went to Pakistani soil and settled scores, down to the last penny)," Modi said.
The Prime Minister portrayed demonetisation as a surgical strike on corruption. At the same time, he attempted damage control, promising small traders they would not be harassed by the taxman. "My fight is against the big sharks. No small trader will be harassed," he said, projecting himself as a crusader against corruption and those against him as "looters".
Modi cited the example of Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, a cabinet minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi government, to attack the state's ruling party but without mentioning his name.
"SP leaders were saying two months ago that they wanted to remove such and such leader because he was corrupt, anti-social and (part of the) mining mafia. But why were they forced to give tickets to those whom they (the SP leaders) had dubbed mining mafia, leader of goons and land mafia?" he wondered before providing the answer himself.
"This," he said, "happened because their intention was not good."
Akhilesh had removed Prajapati as mining minister in September and re-inducted him in his cabinet after a few days as transport minister.
The chief minister had also expressed his annoyance at Prajapati at a party meeting in October 2016.
Although no Samajwadi leader had said Prajapati wouldn't be given a ticket this time, the general perception was he would be shown the door. But Akhilesh has fielded him from the Amethi Assembly segment in the parliamentary constituency that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi represents.
Modi ridiculed the Congress for its campaigns in September when Rahul and other party leaders had blamed the Samajwadi for the state's poor law and order and backwardness.
"What happened that they suddenly embraced each other?" Modi said before claiming the reason was his "fight against black money".
"I knew that those who were involved in loot would be united against me," he said, referring to his November 8 demonetisation decision.
"But this friendship (between the Samajwadi and the Congress)," the Prime Minister went on, "wouldn't be able to stop Modi (from fighting against black money)."
Among those who attended Modi's rally were party candidates from 34 Assembly constituencies in six west Uttar Pradesh districts - Meerut, Bijnore, Baghpat, Saharanpur, Shamli and Muzaffarnagar - which vote in the first two phases on February 11 and 15.
The BJP has sitting MLAs in 10 of these 34 seats, including four in Meerut, two each in Shamli and Bijnore and one each in Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar.
It doesn't have any seat in Baghpat, a stronghold of Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Additional reporting by our special correspondent in Delhi
