Akhilesh, Rahul flaunt friendship at Agra roadshow; vow to build UP together

Agra: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi held a joint roadshow here on Friday and asked people to vote for the Congress-SP alliance.

“Akhilesh ji has worked with dedication for years, he has put his heart in it, and now we will build UP together for its brighter future,” Rahul told the gathering.

He accused BJP of “misleading people” and said that BSP is not even in the political scene in UP so there is no need for any comment.  

Rahul and Akhilesh had earlier last week addressed a joint public meeting followed by a press meet in Lucknow in a show of strength “to ensure the defeat of BJP and BSP in the assembly polls”.

Both leaders heaped praises on each other at the rally, with Rahul comparing the alliance with the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers.

Akhilesh in turn, said Congress and the Samajwadi party are like the "two wheels of the cycle".

Uttar Pradesh will vote in a seven-phase Assembly election between February 11 and March 8.

Of the 403 Assembly seats, the Congress will contest in 105 seats and SP in 298 seats.

A day after the Lucknow rally, posters had come up in Allahabad depicting the camaraderie between the two leaders and portraying Rahul as 'Jai' while Akhilesh as 'Veeru', the two leading protagonist from the blockbuster Bollywood movie 'Sholay' in the 1970s.