Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav took a veiled jab at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday pointing out that those who projected themselves as “very powerful” have not been able to remove the person responsible for their defeat in the Lok Sabha polls in the most populous state of the country.

“Those who used to call themselves very powerful are not able to remove the person who caused their defeat,” Yadav said in the Lok Sabha, amid speculation that the BJP was looking to change the chief minister following the poor showing in the Lok Sabha polls.

During a debate on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, the Kannauj MP frequently clashed with members of the treasury benches. He said, “Since they (BJP) have lost in Uttar Pradesh, no one is doing namaskar that is what your issue is. We have seen that video in which one person is not doing namaste to the other,” Yadav said referring to a widely circulated social media video claiming that Adityanath did not greet PM Modi at a meeting in Delhi.

However, fact-checks have confirmed that Adityanath did greet PM Modi.

The former UP chief minister also cast doubt on the stability of the BJP-led NDA government, asserting, “Ye chalne wali sarkar nahi hai girne wali sarkar hai” (This government is not one that will endure; it is one that will fall).

He also made his party’s position clear on various issues, including the Agnipath scheme, vowing that the Samajwadi Party would eliminate it upon coming to power. “We Samajwadis can never accept Agniveer. When we are in power, we will scrap it within a year or two,” he stated.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the INDIA bloc secured 43 out of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats, while the BJP-led NDA won 36 seats, a significant drop from their 64 seats in 2019.