The Congress, which is the main challenger to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh, has exchanged heated barbs with its INDIA coalition partner Samajwadi Party (SP) amidst the row over the two party’s potential tie-up for the Assembly polls in the state.
The fresh spat was triggered after Congress’ Madhya Pradesh unit chief and former chief minister Kamal Nath, while responding to a media query on a possible electoral alliance with the SP, said, “Are bhai chhodo Akhilesh-Vakhilesh (Oh brother, lets leave Akhilesh-Vakhilesh)”.
The kind of reference which Nath made towards Akhilesh Yadav, the chief of SP, did not go down well with the latter’s party.
Senior SP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav, on being asked by mediapersons about Nath’s statement, was visibly anguished by the remarks. “I don’t want to say anything. They are ‘Chhutbhaiya’ (small) leaders,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels. Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights! Click here!
Yadav himself also weighed in on the controversy, with a sarcastic remark. “His (Nath) name is so nice. Whose name has ‘Kamal’ they will call Vakhilesh only and not Akhilesh,” the SP president said, while speaking to reporters in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi. Political observers said he was apparently linking Nath’s first name ‘Kamal’ with the electoral symbol of lotus used by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“He said this right, that who is Wakhilesh? Akhilesh is there. If they say these kinds of things then Samajwadi Party can also say, but we don’t want to indulge in this,” Yadav further added.
The 230 assembly seats of Madhya Pradesh will be contested in a single phase election slated for November 17. The SP, which initially appeared keen for an electoral pact with the Congress, has went ahead to release its separate list of candidates. The party has named 33 candidates so far.
In the last Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, the SP had contested without an alliance with the Congress, and won two Assembly seats. The Congress had formed the government after emerging as the single-largest party with 114 seats. However, the party lost close to two dozen MLAs in March 2020, leading to the government’s fall.
Addressing the press in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur on October 20, Yadav blamed Congress for the pre-poll alliance not being inked in Madhya Pradesh. “If the Congress behaves like this, who will stand with them,” he said.
“I am not giving any advice or suggestions to the Congress party but there is a big challenge before the nation. The BJP is a big party. It is a very organised side. So there should be no confusion regarding it in any party. If you fight with confusion you will not win any election,” news agency PTI quoted him as saying.
“Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!” Click here!
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
Updated: 21 Oct 2023, 05:52 PM IST