OBCs in mind, Akhilesh, Maurya in fresh political slugfest; Mayawati too joins in

The SP is attempting to stop the BJP from making further inroads into its OBC vote bank, the reason why it has been claiming since 2017, that the then state BJP chief Maurya missed becoming chief minister, as proof of the BJP side lining OBCs.

A fresh round of political slugfest has started in Uttar Pradesh, with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s political poke at deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, one that drew sharp response from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and surprisingly from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) too.

Hinting all wasn’t well in the Yogi Adityanath government, Yadav claimed that the budget of his rural development ministry had been slashed (Pic for representation)

It all started after the SP chief took to twitter on Saturday, attached a smiling photo of Maurya with “Aap itna jo muskura rahe ho … (this smile of yours)” remark, tweaking a popular Hindi song, “tum itna jo muskura rahe ho, kya gham hai jisko chhupa rahe ho (That you are smiling so much, is it an attempt to conceal some sorrow)” to continue poking the deputy chief minister, who SP has consistently maintained was not made the chief minister in U.P in 2017, since he was an OBC.

The deputy CM quickly responded to Yadav’s take.

“The SP is restless to gain power but in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it won’t be able to open its account. The Modi wave in U.P. as well as the country is more impactful than ever before,” Maurya tweeted.

Maurya is the most prominent OBC face of the BJP in U.P. and the ruling party, anxious to continue connect with OBCs has again named an OBC as the state BJP chief. The SP is attempting to stop the BJP from making further inroads into its OBC vote bank, the reason why it has been claiming since 2017, that the then state BJP chief Maurya missed becoming chief minister, as proof of the BJP side lining OBCs.

Despite Maurya again becoming a deputy CM in Yogi 2.0, the SP has continued to maintain that he wasn’t made the CM as he was an OBC and is still side lined in Adityanath’s government.

That’s why barely a couple of days after making a politically loaded offer to Maurya to join SP with 100 BJP MLAs and become the chief minister, Yadav again targeted Maurya.

Hinting all wasn’t well in the Yogi Adityanath government Yadav claimed that the budget of his rural development ministry had been slashed. “You are smiling so very much. The budget of your ministry has been pruned. The funds are yet to reach your departments. Even the tender (departmental) wasn’t done. Are you attempting to hide all these secrets? Why are you smiling so much?” the SP chief tweeted.

Only a few days back Yadav had offered to make Keshav Prasad Maurya the chief minister if he switched sides to SP with 100 MLAs. Yadav had also cited the example of Bihar, where there has been a surprising change of guard.

Maurya’s retort to Yadav’s offer was that 100 of the 111 SP MLAs were anxious to join the BJP. “Let Akhilesh first save his MLAs,” Maurya had said.

BJP spokesman Navin Srivastava too targeted Yadav. “Budget, tender all these things matter more for those neck deep in corruption. Not for a karmyogi like KP Maurya. His smile is because under Modi the country’s poor are smiling,” he said.

MAYA TOO JOINS IN, AKHILESH HITS BACK

BSP chief Mayawati targeted her Samajwadi Party counterpart for making ‘childish’ statements and accused the main opposition party of being hand in glove with the BJP, a charge frequently levied at the BSP leader. The SP chief hit back, describing the BSP as BJP’s ‘loudspeaker’.

“To hide his own shortcomings and to divert public attention, the SP chief has been making senseless and childish remarks. This is something that people as well as other political parties of the country need to be wary of,” she tweeted.

“SP is losing its political base in U.P and has itself to blame. Family, party, infighting and hobnobbing with criminal elements and jail visits (of SP chief) are in news. That’s why people continue to be dejected,” Maya tweeted.

“The BJP has got a walkover as SP is the main opposition party. That’s why the common man, especially Muslims, are very dejected and troubled,” she added.

“Those parties which are working unitedly for public welfare are one. The BJP is rattled by growing resentment and that is why is getting its ‘loudspeaker parties’ to make meaningless comments,” Yadav tweeted.

“The mike of these loudspeaker parties is somewhere else. The people would teach BJP and its associated parties a befitting lesson,” Yadav added.