PM Modi and Akhilesh Yadav have exchanged bitter comments during UP election campaign.
Highlights
- Request Big B to not do ad campaigns for Gujarat's gadhas: Akhilesh Yadav
- Comment comes day after PM said in UP everyone felt discriminated against
- If village has graveyard, should also have cremation ground, PM had said
Akhilesh Yadav's outrageous dig today, apparently at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Gujarat, featured Amitabh Bachchan and donkeys. "I request the century's biggest superstar, please don't do any ad campaigns for Gujarat's
gadhas (donkeys)," the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said while campaigning in Raebareli.
Without taking names, Mr Yadav referred to an ad in which Mr Bachchan - whose wife Jaya Bachchan is a Samajwadi party lawmaker - gives viewers a glimpse of a "Wild Ass Sanctuary" near Ahmedabad. The 74-year-old veteran has filmed a series of such ads as brand ambassador of Gujarat tourism.
"We will tell the
mahanayak, don't campaign for donkeys. Have you ever heard of campaigning for donkeys? Gujarat's people are doing campaigns for donkeys...then they accuse me of working only for
kabristan (graveyard...)," said the 43-year-old Chief Minister.
The latest comment reflects increasingly pungent discourse in Uttar Pradesh as various parties race to the finish line of the state polls described by many as the semi-final before the 2019 national election.
The Chief Minister's "donkey" jibe was a direct response to PM Modi's comments at a rally in Fatehpur yesterday. "If a village has a
kabristan (graveyard), it should also have a
shamshaan ghat (cremation ground). If there's electricity on Ramzan, it should also be there on Diwali. There must be
bijli (power) both on Eid and Holi... There should be no discrimination," said the Prime Minister, accusing the ruling Samajwadi Party of religious discrimination.
In Raebareli, Akhilesh Yadav retorted, "You revere
Ganga maiyya (river Ganga). Why don't you swear on the Ganga and tell us...is the Samajwadi Party government giving 24-hour electricity in Varanasi or not?"
Varanasi is PM Modi's parliamentary constituency in UP.