In the run up to the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh remained abuzz with political rallies today. Addressing a rally in Lucknow BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi severly criticised the policies of Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress and ruling Samajwadi party. Modi said they were using secularism to divide the people.

Modi accused the Samajwadi government and earlier governments in Uttar Pradesh of keeping Muslims perpetually backward in the state. He said in the past one year, more than 150 riots have taken place in UP, while there was not even a single riot in Gujarat in the last 10 years. Modi also attacked the third front, saying the experiment will prove costly for the country which needed a government that could take decisions and come up to the people's expectations.

Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and CM Akhilesh Yadav addressing a rally in Allahabad criticised Narendra Modi and the Congress. Mulayam Singh claimed that BJP was unable to find candidates of their own for the Lok Sabha elections and hence have embarked upon a poaching spree.

Akhilesh Yadav claimed that his government had accomplished in two years what previous regimes could not in full five-year-terms.

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, on his second day of his UP tour, addressed a rally in Kanpur. Kejriwal severely criticised the Congress and BJP leaders and accused them of being hand in glove with big corporate houses, only to benefit them. He claimed that the next government at the centre cannot be formed without AAP support. Kejriwal said he will visit Gujarat next week to see the so called development claimed by Modi in the state.

Kejriwal also did not spare the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh saying that there have been more than 100 riots in the state in the last two years. He also targeted Mayawati's BSP.