UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday took a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, saying “he is a good boy and should visit and stay in Uttar Pradesh more often”.
UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday took a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, saying “he is a good boy and should visit and stay in Uttar Pradesh more often”.
Mr Yadav’s comment was obviously retaliation to Mr Gandhi’s remark at a party programme in Lucknow in July in which he had said, “Akhilesh achche ladke hai magar kuchh kar nahin paye”.
Mr Yadav, while talking to reporters after a meeting of the state Cabinet, said, “”Rahulji bahut achche insan hain, bahut acche ladke hain. UP me jyada rahenge to hamari bhi dosti unse hogi...Do achche log mil jaye to kya kharab baat hai (Rahul is a good human being and a good boy. If he spends more time in UP, we can also have friendship with him. If two good human beings meet, what’s wrong in that),” he said.
Mr Yadav clarified that friendship between two politicians should not have any political overtones.
Referring to the farmers running off with cots after Mr Gandhi’s “khat sabha” in Deoria, the chief minister said, “If this had happened at a Samajwadi vent, you people would have said that Samajwadi goons have looted the cots”.
The chief minister’s remarks came on a day when Mr Gandhi is touring Basti district on his kisan yatra. Mr Gandhi has, so far, been “soft” on the Akhilesh government and has focused all his speeches on the failure of the Modi government.
