BJP ups ante against SP as Nitish Kumar meets Akhilesh

LUCKNOW The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) sparred on social media, releasing musical videos against each other and Yogi 2.0 ministers stepped up the attack on SP and its chief Akhilesh Yadav as he met Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in a bid to explore a united front against the saffron party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The SP said it would file a defamation case against those responsible for the musical video put out by the BJP, in which the party chief was named while Yogi’s cooperative minister, JPS Rathore, launched a virulent attack to target the leader of the opposition.

Before all this happened, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya sought to dismiss any threat from the Nitish-Akhilesh meeting. He described UP as the “land of Ram” and Bihar as the “land of Sita” and then said his party would win all the seats in these two states in 2024.

“No matter who meets whom, one thing is certain that the land of Lord Ram with 80 Lok Sabha seats and that of Goddess Sita with 40 Lok Sabha seats, would ensure that BJP wins all 120 Lok Sabha seats as people realise that all these are opportunistic alliances. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working tirelessly for the poor and draws strength from them and their blessings,” said Maurya.

After this, the BJP’s attack on Akhilesh grew fiercer.

In Shahjahanpur, minister JPS Rathore drew attention with his strong statement against the SP chief.

“Aaj main poochna chaahta hoon, agar kisi apradhi, mafia ke khilaaf karyawahi ki jaati hai, unke gharon par bulldozer chalaya jaata hain, toh aakhir inke pet mein dard kyon hone lagta hai? Aisi sahanabhooti apraadhi, mafiyon se kyon ho rahi hain? Main kehna chahta hoon Akhilesh Yadav ji, aap issi tarah se apraadhi, mafiyon ke saath ILU ILU karte rahe, toh aagey aane wale chunaav main janata aapko dauda dauda ke maaregi, Samajwadi Party ko vote nahi milega... vote nahi maang payenge Samajwadi Party ke log (I want to know why do you have problems when action is taken against criminals. If this continues, then in forthcoming elections, people will beat you up, SP won’t get votes),” he said.

Political observers felt that the sharp attack by the UP minister was perhaps deliberate, aimed at drawing attention to the alleged backing of criminals by the Samajwadi Party.

“The SP is attempting to punch holes in BJP’s law and order pitch by raising the issue of extra-judicial killings and fake encounters while the BJP is building the narrative that unlike the SP, the BJP has established the rule of law in the state where the mafia used to call the shots,” said Irshad Ilmi, a political analyst.

The theme of the BJP’s musical video, released from the party’s official twitter handle, was primarily focused on portraying the SP chief as a leader whom criminals love. The lyrics of the BJP’s video went thus, “Gundey pukartey hain phir Akhilesh aaiye (criminals want Akhilesh back in power).”

The SP put out its musical counter, where the lyrics of Kanhaiya Mittal’s hit song ‘Jo Ram ko laye hain, hum unko layenge (those who brought Ram, we will elect them)’ were tweaked to ‘jo janata ko sataye hain, hum unko hatayenge (we will remove those who have troubled the masses)’.

The Samajwadi Party also put out clippings to back its theory that neither ‘law’ was being followed nor was there any ‘order’ in the BJP-ruled state even as the BJP also used social media claiming how SP leaders liked to take the ‘law’ in their own hands.

“We will file a criminal defamation suit,” Akhilesh Yadav said.

“The court should immediately take cognizance and act, taking the derogatory song with video of SP chief from the BJP’s official twitter account as evidence. The SP will file a criminal defamation case against all those responsible for this,” the SP stated through its official twitter handle.