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Uttar Pradesh assembly polls: War over words raises political temperature on campaign trail
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath and SP-RLD alliance leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary have been firing verbal volleys while hitting the campaign trail in the UP polls
The Uttar Pradesh assembly polls have unleashed a war over words on the campaign trail with terms like “garmi” (heat), “charbi” (fat) and “bharti” (recruitment) coming into play and raising the political temperature .
For instance, chief minister Yogi Adityanath raised the pitch of his electioneering further and repeated his “garmi” jibe at least thrice on Saturday.
The Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance has countered with a “charbi” remark and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has laid stress on “bharti” (recruitment) while campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Yogi, who addressed public meetings at Thana Bhawan (Shamli), Charthawal and Purkazi (both in Muzaffarnagar) in west UP on Saturday, said getting an election ticket did not mean anything and those using threatening language in the heat of the elections should cool down or else they would be cooled down after March 10 (the counting day).
“If they (opposition candidates) feel getting a ticket means everything, I have come to tell them that ticket does not mean anything. Garmi shant karke rakho (Keep your cool) or else it (heat) will cool down after March 10,” Yogi said addressing a gathering at Thana Bhawan in Shamli (about 500 km north-west of Lucknow).
He also targeted Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and said, “The SP chief says he has hot blood. If his blood was hot in reality the Muzaffarnagar riots would not have happened.”
Yogi has been using the “garmi” jibe to target the SP-RLD alliance candidates for some time in public meetings and social media too.
“Candidate of tamanchavadi (who uses country made pistol) party from Kairana is giving threats. This means the heat has not cooled down. This will cool down after March 10 (counting of votes),” Yogi said in a tweet on January 29.
For his part, Akhilesh Yadav has questioned the chief minister’s remark on “taking heat out” and asked “is he (Yogi) a compressor?”
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary has used the word “charbi” to make a point and said ,“Yogi is saying I will take their heat out and weather can turn cold (in west UP) like Shimla in the month of June…. Press the RLD button (on EVM) in such a manner that BJP ke netaon par jo charbi chadh rahi hai, woh charbi utar do (take some body fat off BJP leaders).”
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was on a door-to-door campaign in Aligarh on Saturday, said instead of using such language in the polls, there should be a discussion on “bharti” (recruitment).
“Some are talking about “garmi nikal denge” and some are saying “charbi nikal denge”. We are saying “bharti nikal do” (advertise vacancies for recruitment). There are a number of unemployed. There are 12 lakh vacancies with the government,” said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in her interaction with the people for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls at Aligarh, about 340 km north-west of Lucknow on Saturday.
“Vote for those who are talking about bharti (filling vacancies) and reject those who speak the language of garmi (heat) and charbi (fat) in 2022 assembly election in Uttar Pradesh,” she said.
The Congress general secretary in charge of UP has urged shopkeepers and other people to vote for her party.
Professor SK Dwivedi, former head of the department of political science Lucknow University, said there should only be healthy criticism.
“All the leaders should have control over their words and refrain from using such words. The right words should be used for healthy criticism,” said Dwivedi.
