UP Minister Affixes "Servant" To His Name On X After Akhilesh Yadav's Dig

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak on Friday affixed "servant" to his name on X, formerly Twitter, apparently reacting to a dig taken at him by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

This came after Mr Yadav climbed the locked gate of the Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre (JPNIC) on Wednesday to garland a statue of the social leader on his birth anniversary.

Targeting the SP chief, Mr Pathak had said if he is so good at climbing, he should have participated in the Asian Games and won some more medals for the country. Reacting to Mr Pathak's comments, Mr Yadav reportedly asked if he should respond to the "servant deputy chief minister's" remarks.

Further, Mr Pathak said, "Of course, Akhilesh is a raja and I am a servant of people. He has nothing to do with the people... the only thing he does is make statements. He is from a family of kings, I am the servant of people." Later, the deputy chief minister affixed "servant" to his name on X.

In a video shared by the SP on its official X handle on Friday, Mr Yadav defended his remarks.

"Is he (Pathak) not a government servant? What wrong have I said? He should have told on whose orders the museum built in the name of Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan was locked," he said.

"No government in Uttar Pradesh has ever stopped anyone from participating in a programme related to any 'mahapurush'," the SP chief said.

He alleged the museum was locked, tin sheets put up, and police and other officials were deployed to prevent the SP from garlanding Narayan's statue

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)