Yogi Adityanath made the remarks in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly
Referring to Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav recounting an anecdote of a student mistaking him for Rahul Gandhi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday there is not much difference between the two leaders.
While one criticises the country abroad, the other speaks ill about Uttar Pradesh outside the state, he said in a swipe at the Congress leader and Akhilesh Yadav.
During the discussion on the budget in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Yogi Adityanath said children are innocent and the student, whom Mr Yadav had referred to, must have said this after some thinking.
"There is not much difference between them (Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav)...while one criticises the country abroad, the other one flays UP outside the state," the chief minister said, drawing laughter from the treasury benches.
The leader of the opposition, Akhilesh Yadav, was present in the house at that time.
Deploring the quality of education in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Yadav had on Monday recounted the day he was confused with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by a child during his visit to a school.
The SP supremo had said this while addressing the state assembly during the discussion on the state budget.
He was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2012 to 2017.
When the members from the treasury benches laughed at this, Yadav had said, "They are not sad about the level of education in the state, but because I took the name of the Congress leader."
Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav had joined hands to take on BJP in the 2017 assembly polls in UP but the alliance was unsuccessful.
In the recent elections, Congress had gone alone while Mr Yadav had stitched a coalition with the RLD and other regional parties. While the SP fared much better, it failed to dislodge the BJP.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)