The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday hit back at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his “pendulum” jibe at Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohiya) president Shivpal Singh Yadav.
SP chief and former U.P. CM Akhilesh Yadav cautioned the BJP against arrogance. “Pendulum indicates changing times. It highlights nothing is permanent,” Mr. Yadav wrote on social networking site Twitter.
On November 28, during a campaign in the Karhal Assembly segment that falls under the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, Mr. Adityanath (in a veiled reference to Shivpal Singh) had said, “He has become something like a pendulum, or a football that gets kicked by both teams. We saw how last time he was insulted on stage through denial of a chair and had to sit on the arm of a chair.” Karhal is represented by the SP chief in the U.P. Assembly.
Mr. Adityanath asked voters to support BJP nominee Raghuraj Singh Shakya, a two-term Lok Sabha member from adjoining Etawah. “Development of Mainpuri can gain momentum if the local leadership is also from the BJP,” added Mr. Adityanath, while alleging that during the SP’s rule, the State was under the control of the land and mining mafia that had been nurtured by the party.
The Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat is considered a stronghold of the SP as it has won every parliamentary election since 1996. The SP’s candidate for the prestigious seat is Dimple Yadav, the daughter-in-law of the SP founder and five-term parliamentarian from the seat, the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose demise necessitated the bypoll.
In 2019, the BJP polled more than three lakh votes and lost by less than one lakh votes. The recent successes of the BJP in the Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha bypolls, both seats that were considered SP bastions, has given new hope to the BJP of breaching the citadel of the SP.
