Be cautious of people who do 'mann ki baat': Akhilesh Yadav

Aliganj (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Jan. 30 (ANI): Launching another scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday alleged that its election manifesto was a rip-off of the Samajwadi party's. Akhilesh also taunted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his monthly radio address 'Mann ki Baat' and warned people to be wary of people who do 'mann ki baat' as the 'mann' is 'chanchal' or daft. "There's nothing new in the BJP manifesto. It was copied from ours. Whatever they wrote in the manifesto, we had already mentioned in our manifesto," Akhilesh said. "Be cautious of people who do 'mann ki baat'. We have been told that people who do that know that 'mann' is 'chanchal'. The Samajwadi Party talks with the heart. So we have assigned daily doses of milk and ghee for the young girls and pressure cookers for women," Akhilesh added another sardonic remark. Calling the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 'haathhi waali party', Akhilesh remarked if it comes to power, they will erect the elephant statues everywhere. "If the 'haathhi waali party' comes to power, they will start erecting 'haathhi' everywhere. And we don't even know how large that elephant will be," he said. Expressing confidence in the SP-Congress alliance, Akhilesh said nobody could compete with them, neither the 'kamal' (the BJP's symbol) nor the 'haathhi' (the BSP's symbol). He also said, while referring to his father and Samajwadi Party's patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's visible disagreement with the alliance, that the win in these assembly polls will only increase Netaji's honour and respect. "We have always said the Samajwadi Party will win and when the Congress has sided with us, we know we will win more than 300 seats in the assembly. And this will only increase Netaji's honour and respect among the people," he said. The poll process in the state begins on February 11. 73 constituencies in Western UP will go in polls in this phase. Uttar Pradesh is set to have a seven-phase polling between February 11 and March 8. (ANI)