To save costs, UP CM Adityanath distributes school bags with Akhilesh's image

Lucknow: In an extraordinary decision, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has allowed thousands of schoolbags with images of Akhilesh Yadav to be distributed in schools, a report by NDTV said.

He wants the bags to reach students in time for their new term. "Yogi Adityanath didn't want the waste of public money just for political ego," officials were quoted as saying.

Before Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party lost to Yogi Adityanath's BJP in the 2017 UP elections, around 35,000 schoolbags had already been manufactured.

Adityanath recently came up with a scheme that would not include any names in it. NDTV reported that the new batch of schoolbags which will be printed will  simply say 'Mukhya Mantri Yojana' or 'Uttar Pradesh Yojana'.

In the months leading up to the UP elections. a number of schemes were launched with the prefix 'Samajwadi' and they also had images of Akhilesh Yadav which were used liberally. Some examples are the Samajwadi Smartphone scheme, the Samajwadi Namak (fortified salt) scheme with Akhilesh Yadav photos on salt packets, and plates for schoolchildren with Akhilesh Yadav stickers. The Samajwadi laptops launched in 2012 had Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav as screensavers, NDTV reported.

For students from Class 1 to 8, the Samajwadi government had sanctioned around 1.8 crore schoolbags. However, midway through distribution, the model code of conduct came into place for the election. A huge number of bags were stacked at district education officers as officials waited for the new government's decision.

Yogi Adityanath weighed the financial implications and decided not to waste the 'Akhilesh Yadav bags'. But the Samajwadi Party says Yogi Adityanath's gesture has been hugely overrated.

According to Samajwadi leaders, after Akhilesh Yadav came to power in 2012, he did not remove the statues of his predecessor Mayawati, but ordered that all parks set up by her should be protected.