Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe at the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party and calling them ‘Sarab’ drew sharp reactions from SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati, who maintained that the Prime Minister had coined a new acronym to fool people.
Akhilesh took to Twitter saying: “Today the tele-prompter has spelt wrongly the word Sharab as Sarab, as these people had only promoted hatred in the society. These people do not know difference between sarab and sharab.”
The SP leader went on to clarify that sarab meant ‘mirage’ while sharab meant liquor.
He further said that the Bharatiya Janata Party had been selling dreams to the people for the past five years and as election was around the corner, these leaders had started spreading lies again.
Information advisor to the Chief Minister, Mrityunjaya Kumar, replied to Akhilesh Yadav saying: “Akhileshji, please listen to Prime Minister’s speech again. Listen it carefully. He has called your alliance Sa-Ra-B. Sa from Sapa, Ra from RLD and B from BSP. When we join these words this become sarab. It not only means mirage but also deceit.”
On the other hand, BSP chief Mayawati said that the Prime Minister’s comment was in bad taste.
She also commented through a tweet about how the Election Commission had formed a committee to probe into the misuse of his position by the Prime Minister to address the nation on the success of DRDO.
“The EC has formed a committee to examine the content of PM’s address yesterday but the real issue is why and how did the PM address the country without prior EC permission. It is gross misuse of power and machinery for electoral benefits. The EC must act in an exemplary manner,” Mayawati tweeted.
In another tweet, the BSP chief said, “Previous experience proves that BJP leaders are habitual offenders in violating Model Code of Conduct. And PM Mr Modi again flouted poll norms by addressing the country without prior permission of EC though there was no such emergency. Hope the EC acts promptly.”