Just ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav engaged in a war of words on Saturday.
Adityanath took a jibe at Akhilesh after the SP chief called Yogi “Baba” at an event earlier in the day. Adityanath said: “Babua, ye Twitter hi vote bhi de dega (This twitter will give you votes).”
The chief minister was in Akhilesh Yadav’s home district Etawah on Saturday late afternoon to inaugurate and lay foundations for projects worth about ₹475 crore, which also included the Central jail in Etawah.
Hours before, Akhilesh, referring to Yogi Adityanath, had said: “Baba Mukhya Mantri should not contest an assembly seat, he is already on his way out.”
Akhilesh often refers to Adityanath as “Baba” (an apparent allusion to Yogi’s position as the chief priest of the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur).
Babua, on the other hand, was a term frequently used by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati in the run-up to 2012 UP assembly polls to hit out at Akhilesh Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav, during that time often used to refer to Mayawati as bua (paternal aunt). Neither Mayawati nor Akhilesh uses Babua and Bua for each other anymore.
At the Etawah function, Yogi Adityanath slammed Akhilesh Yadav for frequently accusing the BJP and him of “re-laying foundation stones and inaugurating or re-inaugurating previous SP government projects”.
“I congratulate you all on the inauguration and foundation of a total of 21 development works in Etawah on the day of Bhaiya Dooj. It happens only in the BJP government that we lay the foundation and then inaugurate the projects. When the intent is not clean, dishonesty and corruption rule. Even if power is attained by deceit, and foundation stones are laid, the public doesn’t leave them in a state to inaugurate the projects,” said Yogi Adityanath.
“We lay the foundation in shubh muhurat (auspicious time), and then inaugurate them in shubh muhurat. The projects for which we had laid foundation stones three years earlier, we are inaugurating them today,” he said.
