After a sustained attack on the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party over the last three days, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday trained his guns on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Significantly, his first major attack on BJP came in parts of Pilibhit, the political turf of his first cousin and BJP member of Parliament Varun Gandhi.
"BJP ke log appake paas aye; unhone aapse kaha hame Ram ke naam par vote do; yeh Ram ke naam ki dalali nahin to aur kya hai (BJP sought votes from you in the name of Ram. Isn't this tantamount to misusing his legacy)" asked Rahul at three successive rallies in Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur and Barielly.
While accusing BJP of making only "false and hollow promises" with the sole intent of serving its short-term political gains, he appealed to the people to vote for the Congress.
"While the BJP's unreliable character is known to all, it was once again amply demonstrated in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, when in sharp contrast to its earlier categorical assurance, the party declined to support the Lokpal Bill," Rahul pointed out.
In Barielly, Rahul also chose to take on the Samajwadi Party.
He said, "Ever since the UPA government has announced 4.5 per cent reservation for Muslims, (SP chief) Mulayam Singh Yadav has become jittery, which is reflected in his new-found demand for raising the reservation for Muslims to 18 per cent".
Terming it as Mulayam's "lip service", he said, "I would like to see if Mulayam Singh Yadav is going to endorse this in his party's election manifesto."
Earlier, he flayed Mayawati for perpetuating large-scale corruption, which he termed as the key cause of Uttar Pradesh's backwardness and poverty.
"A good chunk of the funds released by the Centre towards poverty alleviation and other social security programmes in UP were pilfered by the Mayawati administration," he alleged.
"There were large-scale rackets in the implementation of major central schemes involving key functionaries in the Mayawati regime," he added.
The current five-day election tour of Rahul Gandhi concludes on Friday, when he is scheduled to address a rally in Saharanpur.
