By PTI
LUCKNOW: Responding to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s jibe against his party, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday attacked the BJP saying it stands for arrogance, lies, and inflation.
Akhilesh’s response came a day after Shah’s speech in Azamgarh, in which he termed the SP as a party that stands for ‘Jinnah, Azam Khan and Mukhtar (Ansari)’, giving it the acronym ‘JAM’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in past used ‘JAM’ as a shorthand to publicise his vision of getting a Jan Dhan Bank account, Aadhaar, and Mobile phone’ to every person in the country.
On Sunday, Akhilesh used the same acronym to attack the BJP.
“For BJP ‘J’ stands for ‘Jhooth’ (lie), ‘A’ stands for ‘Ahankaar'(arrogance), and ‘M’ stands for ‘Mahangaai’ (inflation),” he said addressing a press conference in Kushinagar.
In his address, Akhilesh criticized the BJP for rising prices of petrol and diesel across the country.
He alleged the BJP is pandering to the poor only because election is around the corner in Uttar Pradesh.
“If the BJP stays in power, it (fuel price) will touch Rs 150. They are not increasing the price as election is round the corner,” he said.
“The poor are being given food grains only till the elections. They (BJP) are saying that it has been extended from Holi to Diwali,” he said, adding that if his party comes to power, food will be available round the year.
Addressing a rally in the SP bastion of Azamgarh on Saturday, Shah had said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has rid the Purvanchal region of “mosquitoes and mafia”.
He claimed that while Modi strived to give a ‘corruption-free’ government, SP was inducting in its fold people like Mukhtar Ansari, a don-turned-politician.
“You should tell me whether you want BJP’s JAM or SP’s JAM. These people can never work for the welfare of Uttar Pradesh. They indulge in dividing people on the basis of caste, causing riots, appeasement, and vote-bank politics,” Shah had said.
He attacked the SP chief yet again for naming Muhammad Ali Jinnah — the founder of Pakistan — among other freedom fighters.
“There are so many people from the minority community here. Is there anyone here who sees greatness in Jinnah,” Shah had said.
In an address in Hardoi on October 31, Akhilesh kicked up a controversy when he said Jinnah got his barristership from the same place as did Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, and Jawaharlal Nehru, people who got India freedom.
