'Child Said I Was Rahul Gandhi': Akhilesh Yadav Explains His Face On Gifts

Lucknow: 1.8 crore children who eat mid-day meals in Uttar Pradesh's government-run schools will each get a steel thaali (plate) and a glass, with big photos on them of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. 

The UP chief minister launched the scheme today and was immediately attacked by the Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati, who called it "cheap publicity" just before elections in the state. 

The Chief Minister had a ready answer for why the plates and glasses have stickers with his face on them. "Once I went to Raebareli and I asked a child, do you recognise me? He said yes. I asked who am I? He said Rahul Gandhi," Mr Yadav said to a loud burst of laughter from his audience at the function in Mohanlalganj on the outskirts of Lucknow.   

Among the 10 children who got their Akhilesh thaalis personally from the Chief Minister, class toppers Nandini and Sahil who said they knew who he was. "I have seen Akhilesh Yadav on TV earlier," said Sahil, who has three siblings and whose father is a rickshaw puller. 

The 43-year-old Chief Minister seemed in a better mood than he has all week amid a big political clash with father and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his younger brother Shivpal Yadav.  

He attacked his predecessor Mayawati over the giant statues of herself and her party's elephant symbol that she built in her tenure saying, " I don't want to say much about someone who I always referred to as 'bua' , till she asked me not to , but you tell me, have you ever heard of anyone else who gets statues of themselves built and installed in their lifetime? Its been 9 years, all these elephants she got installed , the ones standing are still standing, the ones that were sitting are still sitting '. 

And he attacked the BJP, asking voters to be "wary of them." The chief minister also drew laughter when he said, "Tell me, do any one of you know what a surgical strike is? I had to Google and find out. Then some days ago some newspapers said Akhilesh too has effected a surgical strike and I understood."

Mayawati has advised the Chief Minister to take out time from the feud in the family and "focus on the suffering of the state's people."