UP assembly bypolls on knife's edge as Yogi Adityanath, Akhilesh Yadav trade barbs

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav criticised Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath saying that it was not saffron robes, but a person’s conduct which made him a yogi

Uttar Pradesh bypolls (L) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, (R) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav

On day two of his by-poll campaign, Yogi Adityanath kept up the attacks on Akhilesh Yadav calling him ‘babua’ (boy) who was yet to mature. 

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister was addressing a rally in the Yadav stronghold of Mainpuri on Saturday. The Karhal Vidhan Sabha in the constituency is to go to the polls on November 20. This is Yadav’s seat which fell vacant after he was elected to the Lok Sabha recently. 

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Meanwhile in Lucknow, former chief minister Yadav addressed the media and said, “The countdown of the encounter people has started”. 

He also took on Adityanath’s statements from Friday saying that the CM should get his eyes checked and pay attention to data from the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB). The CM had, on Friday said that wherever people from Samajwadi Party were seen, daughters were filled with fear. 

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Hitting out at the CM, Yadav also said that it was not saffron robes, but a person’s conduct which made him a yogi. He also spoke about the ‘poison’ of demonetisation which had affected those in jobs, shopkeepers, small vendors and everyone. 

Meanwhile, the slogan war between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party carried on in Lucknow. 

To the BJP’s ‘Batenge toh Katenge’, the Samajwadi Party came up with- ‘You write about divisions, we will write history; you write about hatred, we will write about progress; you write about atrocities, we shall write about the PDA revolution’. This jibe is fashioned after the poem ‘Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega’ written and performed by the poet Amir Aziz during the demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act. 

In Sisamu (Kanpur) Adityanath continued his attack on Yadav saying that the Samajwadi Party had it in it to offer condolences on the passing away of mafias. This was a reference to Yadav’s visit to the residence of Mukhtar Ansari after his death in March this year. 

Adityanath also scoffed at media surveys and said that all of those had been proved worthless when the BJP was elected to a third term in office.

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