Intensifying its attack on Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday dared him to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance government if he was a 'true Lohiaite' (follower of socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia) and ridiculed the SP chief for asking party workers to bag maximum number of Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
"Dr Ram Manohar Lohia would have not tolerated corruption. If Mulayam is a follower of Lohia, then he should take action to pull down the UPA government. Why is he tolerating corruption? After all, the government depends on him," BJP national vice-president Uma Bharati said.
She was addressing the valedictory session of a two-day state executive meeting of the BJP in Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh.
"Lohia used to say that politics is a short term religion and religion is long term politics," she said.
She also said that if Mulayam recently praised veteran BJP leader L K Advani due to the latter’s
"The personality of Advaniji and Atalji is such that everyone praises them," she said.
Bharati said the SP knows very well that it will not come to power in Uttar Pradesh again and if it fails to establish its supremacy in Lok Sabha polls, the party will be finished.
"We have to crush the SP's dream about forming a Third Front and winning maximum seats in the state," she said.
Mulayam had on Wednesday asked party workers to be ready for the Lok Sabha polls any time and win the maximum number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, so that the SP could play a "major role" in government formation at the Centre.
Bharati's fresh attack on Mulayam came a day after she dubbed him a "pseudo-Lohiaite."
"Mulayam Singh Yadav in no way is the representative of Lohia. The manner in which he ran the government is totally opposite to the ideology of Lohia; therefore he is a pseudo Lohiaite," she had said.
