New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav said Saturday that he was not in the race to become prime minister but wanted to make one. Uttar Pradesh has always given the country a prime minister and anybody wishing to so have to come to the state, as Narendra Modi did, he said. Speaking at the India Today Conclave here, the former chief minister also played down the remarks of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav wishing Modi in Lok Sabha that he comes back as the prime minister again. "I do not wish to become the prime minister, I am not in the race, but I want to make one...We know how to make a PM," he said.

"We will be glad if someone from Uttar Pradesh becomes the prime minister," he said when asked if he wanted BSP supremo Mayawati to become PM. Akhilesh claimed that the Congress was part of the 'mahagathbandhan (grand alliance)' in Uttar Pradesh, but could not give an answer on how the SP and the Congress were contesting the Lok Sabha polls alone and against each.

It is not the "fear" of Modi that brought the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) together, but the fight to save the Constitution and the country, he said. The SP and BSP recently entered into an alliance in Uttar Pradesh. "The SP, BSP, Congress and other regional parties are with us and there is a 'mahagathbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh.... When the BSP, SP, Congress, RLD and Nishad Party are together... is it not a mahagathbandhan?" he asked.

"There is a 'gathbandhan' and the Congress is with us. 'Uttar Pradesh ko haath bhi pasand hai, aur UP ko haathi bhi pasand hai'," he said, referring to the poll symbols of the Congress and the BSP. Terming the getting together of opposition parties a "sangam (confluence)" of thoughts, Akhilesh said that "it is a fight for saving the Constitution and to "free" the nation from those who have ruined it.

On Mulayam Singh's comments wishing Modi returns for another term, he said, "Did Netaji (as Mulayam is popularly called) not wish Dr Manmohan Singh the same way ahead of the last Lok Sabha elections, and did he return back to power." "Who knows his blessings more than I do, that he wish, bless in such a way that we only know what will happen...Only I know about his blessings and that is why I will not talk about it," Akhilesh said.

In an apparent dig at Prime Minister Modi, he said, "Everyone has seen how big the chest is during the Kumbh bath". The SP leader said the Pulwama factor would not influence the elections and it is the issues on the ground that will still determine on who wins.

He accused the BJP of not having worked on the ground and said this is the reason why the BJP was set to lose the elections.