Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Tuesday traded words over the Gir lions gifted by the Gujarat Government to UP.
It all started in Bareilly where Narendra Modi was addressing an election rally on Tuesday. Modi said, “Your Chief Minister was asking us for lions. We gave them lions. We had hoped they may draw some strength from seeing the lions. But they could not handle the Gujarat lions. The lions had to be caged.”
He continued amid the roar of laughter from the crowd: “I invite the Chief Minister, Netaji (as Mulayam Singh is called by party leaders), his daughter-in law, and brother to visit Gir to see how freely lions roam there.”
An hour later came the repartee from Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav from lucknow, 250 km south-east of Bareilly. “There was a barter. We have not taken the lions for free. Modiji never reveals this. But we have given him lakarbaggha (hyena) in exchange of lions,’’ he said.
Akhilesh said that those lions are now in lucknow zoo. “One day, I along with my cabinet colleague Chaudhryji (Rajendra Chaudhry) had gone to the zoo to see those lions. They roared. I do not know their language. The foresters said that those lions have roared to welcome me and thanked me for bringing them here,” he said amid peals of laughter. He said these lions would be shifted to 300 square acres lion Safari in Etawah soon.