Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Friday slammed the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and said the opposition party has given tickets during Uttar Pradesh polls to those "who are in jail and are on bail".
"In the first four phases of the Uttar Pradesh election, people have voted to wash away SP, BSP and Congress. The first list of candidates of the Samajwadi Party had names of those in jail and the ones who were on bail," he said at a press conference here.
The minister sought an apology from Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav for her remarks that BJP's "double-engine" government has "rusted and it now resembles the colour of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's attire".
"The saffron that the SP leader (Dimple Yadav) is insulting is a symbol of Sanatan Dharma and tenacity, renunciation and sacrifice. These 'families' living in the palaces hate the saffron-clad leader only because he considers the 25 crore people of Uttar Pradesh as his family," he said.
"Dimple Yadav should take back her words. Yogi Adityanath worked for the safety of women, gave electricity, worked for the backward people. He was voted to power by the people of the state. Dimple Yadav should apologise to the people of UP also," he added.
The Uttar Pradesh BJP has said the people of the state "will not tolerate the insult to saffron colour just to please a 'special' vote bank'".
Dimple Yadav had said at a rally that the "BJP's double-engine has rusted".
"When the iron gets rusted, what is its colour. I think it is the same as the chief minister's clothes," she said referring to Adityanath's saffron clothes and added that it "is time to remove the rust from Uttar Pradesh".
( With inputs from ANI )
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