UP polls: In U-turn, RLD chief now says he'll cast his vote

Bijnor (Uttar Pradesh) [India], February 10 : Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary on Thursday took a "U-turn", stating that he will try to cast his vote in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura. He has earlier in the morning said that he may miss out on voting because of his election rallies.
The RLD chief is a voter in the Mathura Assembly constituency.
"I'm a voter of Mathura. Right now, we're in Bijnor as there is just two days' time for campaigning between the first and second rounds of UP polls. My wife voted in the morning itself. After campaigning ends here, I'll try to vote at booths open till 6 pm," he told ANI.
Voting for the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections on 58 Assembly seats, covering 11 districts of the state, began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm today.
Chaudhary further expressed confidence that voters will give a chance to the SP-RLD alliance this time by walking on the path of progress.
"He (PM) might be considering himself very powerful but we're walking on the path to progress. I'm very confident that our views have reached to grassroots and voters will give us chance," the RLD chief told ANI on PM Narendra Modi's statement that BJP will win all the five states.
He also affirmed that the SP-RLD alliance is moving ahead with hope and positive thoughts along with promoting positive politics.
"You can call me 'baccha' or 'ladka', I don't care. We're going ahead with hopeful and positive thoughts. We want to promote positive politics. Akhilesh and I want to work on the issues of employment, agriculture, much needed industrialization in western UP," he added.
His remark came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a dig at SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief, who are contesting the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in an alliance with remarks that the state had earlier also seen the "game of two boys" and 'buaji' too was with them but the people of the state had rejected their alliances.
"Ye do ladkon wala khel to humne pehle bhi dekha tha (This game of boys we have seen earlier too. They had so much arrogance that they used the words "Gujarat's two donkeys. And the people of Uttar Pradesh showed them the 'hisab (befitting reply)'. And then there were these two boys and there was 'buaji' also with them and still they could not make it," he said in an exclusive interview with ANI.
Chaudhary also took a jibe at PM Modi for exhorting people that they shouldn't let UP become Kerala and West Bengal. "PM is giving statements and you also saw the vote appeal of CM Yogi where he says that don't let UP become Kerala and West Bengal," the RLD chief said.
Citing an example of Kerala's literacy rate, the RLD chief asserted that Kerala is ahead of Uttar Pradesh.
"If you look at Kerala's literacy rate and GDP per capita, you'll find that Kerala is ahead of us. They want to distract from ground issues," he added.
The 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly is scheduled to go to the polls in seven phases on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, March 3, and 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.