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A social media spat has broken out between Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, with each posting a video of the other eating "cashews", as the SP and BJP gear up for 2027 Assembly elections.
Akhilesh Yadav began the exchange by posting a video of Pathak eating, with a satirical line. He said, "Mukhiya hain besudh-bekabu aaju baaju kha rahe kaju," (The boss is senseless, out of control, munching on cashews left and right today). https://x.com/yadavakhilesh/status/2105670070739575221?s=20 Pathak, who also holds the state's Health portfolio, hit back with a video of Akhilesh eating at a table, mocking the SP chief's image of "simplicity". "Wow, what grandeur! Cashews, raisins, almonds, and a lavish spread of dishes adorn the table. It's a royal feast of pomp and splendour. In the platter of political pretence, there's just dal-roti, but in the real one, it's a feast of delicacies. This style of false simplicity is quite splendid too, sir. After all, if the show in politics is simple, so what? The dishes are still delectable," Pathak said. https://x.com/brajeshpathakup/status/2105967857150415099?s=20 In an earlier post, Akhilesh tied the "cashews" jibe to an alleged incident in which a pregnant Musahar woman was denied delivery at a hospital. "There's no need to state how great an enemy the BJP government, which is not even allowing the 'PDA' to be born in its hospitals, is to the 'PDA'," he wrote. The SP uses PDA for Pichhde (backward), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minority) communities. "It is an extremely serious and inhuman matter that a pregnant woman from the Musahar caste was denied delivery in the hospital on the basis of caste and was forced to give birth to her child in the open in an unhygienic environment," he alleged. Targeting the Health Minister, he said, "If the Health Minister can find time away from eating cashews, he should see to what extent his department has been filled with the poison of discrimination. The BJP folks have fallen to the lowest level they could, now all that's left is for the BJP government to fall." https://x.com/yadavakhilesh/status/2105658497178513478?s=20 This comes in the run-up to the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections in early 2027, with SP as the BJP's main challenger. The SP has reinvoked the PDA formula, central to its politics, while the BJP is looking to retain the state for the third time. (ANI)
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