The war of words triggered by state Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu’s move to snatch BSP’s slogan of ‘Jai Bhim’ during a recent march in support of reservation in promotions in government jobs, hotted up with more leaders from both sides having a go at each other.
Soon after Lallu led the march sporting blue bandana along with some leaders and chanted ‘Jai Bhim’, Congress candidate from Lucknow in 2019 Lok Sabha poll Acharya Pramod Krishnam took a jibe at Lallu tweeting that it would be better if the Congress also adopted the symbol of ‘Elephant’ so that Dalits voted for the party in the upcoming polls.
Another BSP-hopper and Congress candidate from Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha seat, RK Chaudhary, also chose to distance himself from the Congress march. Instead, he took out a separate march on Thursday under the banner of BS-4, attacking Centre’s move of opposing reservation in promotion in government jobs. However, no disciplinary notice was served on Chaudhary so far for taking out a separate march.
Interestingly, Krishnam’s tweets got support from another Congress leader, Siraj Mehdi, who also criticised Lallu for going against the Congress’s ideology and treading the path of BSP. Mehdi was recently expelled from Congress along with some veteran leaders.
The tweets of Krishnam and Mehdi arebeing seen as an attack on Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as just a week back, she visited Varanasi and paid obeisance at the birthplace of Sant Ravidas, eying the Dalit vote bank.
A former UP Congress spokesman opined, “Lallu’s recent move is merely an extension of Priyanka to woo Dalits and hence an attack on the UP unit chief would clearly be construed as an attack on Priyanka.”
A senior Congress leader from east UP and Lallu confidante, however, came out in support of the Congress stand of trying to woo Dalits. In his tweet, the Congress leader questioned Krishnam for making anti-party tweet saying that someone who never returned to Lucknow after contesting election on a Congress ticket had no right to question party’s programme.