Lucknow, Apr 18 (IANS): In an unexpected move, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday mounted an attack on SP and BSP, saying the two along with the BJP had destroyed Uttar Pradesh.

Gandhi was addressing a rally in Badaun when he said that SP and BSP were afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who held the strings of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

"The Congress is not afraid of CBI. We are working to resurrect the Congress in UP and we will do it," he said.

Gandhi, with his attack on SP and BSP, has demolished speculation that the Congress was locked in a friendly fight with the alliance.

This is the first time that the Congress president has mounted an attack on SP and BSP. Interestingly, the attack came on a day when Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha was seen campaigning for his wife Poonam Sinha who is contesting the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat on a Samajwadi ticket.

The SP-BSP had shunned the inclusion of the Congress into their grand alliance and had left the Rae Bareli and Amethi seats as a goodwill gesture.

Though the BSP had been attacking the Congress, the Congress had refrained from directly attacking SP and BSP or even responding to their charges.