War of words intensifies in U.P. ahead of by-elections

Ahead of the by-election to nine UP assembly constituencies, the ongoing war of words over political slogans appears to have intensified further with the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday targeting chief minister Yogi Adityanath for the latter’s controversial ‘batenge to katenge’ (division will harm interests of Hindus) remarks calling the CM’s comments ‘negative slogan’ which symbolised ‘disappointment and failure’.

Yadav in a post on X without naming the chief minister or any other SP leader said, “His ‘negative slogan’ is a symbol of his disappointment and failure.” He said “This slogan has proved that the 10% voters that are left are also on the verge of leaving, that is why they are trying to unite them by scaring them but nothing like this is going to happen.

“’Negative slogans’ also have an impact, in fact, after this ‘disappointed slogan’, their remaining supporters are even more disappointed thinking that those whom we thought were powerful are talking about weakness even while being in power. The ‘ideal state’ that is imagined in our country has ‘abhay’ (fearlessness) at its base; not ‘bhay’ (fear). It is true that only the ‘fearful’ sells ‘fear’ because one will sell what one may have.

“This slogan will be recorded in the history of the country as the ‘worst slogan’ and will prove to be the last ‘literal nail’ in the final chapter of his political downfall.

“In the interest of the country and society, they should change their advisors along with their negative outlook and attitude; this will prove beneficial for them too. A good advice is that ‘if you nurture something, nurture good thoughts’ and keep your sleeves open, along with your arms, this is good for them. Today’s positive society, we don’t want BJP! #NoToNegativePolitics” wrote Yadav in his post on X translated from Hindi.

The SP has come out with a ‘judenge to jitenge’ (unity will bring us victory) slogans that has been put up on posters and hoardings to bring about unity in the SP’s Picchra (backwards), Dalits and Alpsankhyak (minorities) (PDA) support base.

BSP chief Mayawati has countered both the BJP and the SP for coming out with these slogans and said both the parties and their alliances were upset following the BSP’s decision to contest the by-elections to nine assembly constituencies. Mayawati said these

slogans were only diversionary tactics and amended them to say ‘BSP se Judenge to aage badhenge va surakshit rahenge’ (If you join hands with the BSP there will be progress).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already in a way given his support to Yogi Adityanath’s slogan with ‘Ek Hai to Safe Hai’ observations. RSS’s Dattatreya Hosabale too has supported the CM’s observations and targeted Rahul Gandhi saying the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha spoke about ‘Mohabbat Ki Dukan’ but stayed away from the RSS.