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SP leaders spar over Modi's dig at party

Last Updated 27 October 2013, 21:16 IST

Samajwadi party general secretary Naresh Agarwal’s remarks over the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s speech at Jhansi rally recently, threatened to boil into a major controversy within the party after it turned into an ugly spat between Agarwal and another senior party leader.

On Sunday, Agarwal sought to challenge SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary’s authority, who had criticised him for the remarks.

“Rajendra Chaudhary ki kya haisiyat hai mere upar bolne ki...jo bhi bolna hoga woh netaji bolenge” (Rajendra Chaudhary is no one to comment on me. Only Mulayam Singh Yadav can tell me what to say and what not), Agarwal said.

On Saturday, Chaudhary had said that Agarwal was not the official spokesman of the party and that whatever he had said was his personal opinion and not the views of SP.

“We have made it very clear that we will not tolerate indiscipline under any circumstances,” he had said.

Agarwal’s remarks had also irked the women activists, who had sharply criticised the remarks and sought action against Agarwal.

In a letter to the UP State Commission for Women, Zareena, social activist Urvashi Sharma asked her to take cognisance of sarcasm and use of ‘derogatory’ words showing utter disrespect towards the widow community by Agarwal and ‘get him punished according to law of the land’.

Agarwal had reportedly said, while commenting on Modi’s remarks that SP is a parivaarvadi (family) party, that Modi could not be expected to know about the family as in ‘BJP, marriage is not a tradition’.

“There is a saying in the villages, if one goes to seek blessings of a widow, she wishes that he also becomes like her,” Agarwal had reportedly said.

“Modi should speak on important issues like Indo-Pak relations, inflation and other similar issues. But Modi does not do so as he does not have any knowledge about them,” Agarwal had said.

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(Published 27 October 2013, 21:16 IST)

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