SP MLA distributes sarees with a rider

The Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh may be a good few months away, but politicians are already luring the electorate with freebies. Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Subhash Pasi has been distributing sarees among the women in his Assembly constituency, and has promised them more if they attend Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s meeting scheduled for Monday.

The sarees have prints of the cycle, which is the SP’s election symbol. Pasi, who represented the Saidpur Assembly constituency in Ghazipur district, about 300 km from here, has, according to reports, promised to give women blouse pieces, petticoats, umbrellas and lunch boxes if they attended the meeting.

Pasi also told women that they could get the blouses stitched for free as he would bear the tailoring charges. There is, however, a condition.

“The additional freebies will be given to only those women who come to the meeting clad in the sarees with the cycle print. Those who wear any other saree will not be entitled to the gifts,” said one of Pasi’s aides in Ghazipur. Akhilesh will inaugurate a stadium in Ghazipur on Monday and later, address a meeting. While SP leaders here feigned ignorance about Pasi’s offer, the Opposition parties decried the same and demanded action against the MLA. “We have no information about the distribution of sarees,” clarified a SP leader. The BJP, however, slammed the MLA for luring the electorate. “It shows that the people have deserted the SP and now its leaders are trying to lure the voters...they must have seen the writing on the wall,” senior state BJP leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.