Akhilesh Yadav gives Mamata’s 'Khela Hobe' a UP flavour to take on BJP

In his attempt to woo central and eastern UP voters, Samajwadi Party is portraying Yogi Adityanath as an outsider

As the Uttar Pradesh polls draw close, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is adopting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s viral slogan ‘Khela Hobe’ with an Awadhi-Bhojpuri twist, hoping to emulate the Opposition leader’s victory in the state.

Akhilesh is hoping that just the way 'Khela Hobe' played a part in propelling Banerjee to power for the third time against an insistent BJP, his party’s song ‘Khadeda Hoibe’ will do the same for him. It loosely translates to “be chased out”.

The party is attempting to woo central and eastern UP voters with the song that slams the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in the state.

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This slogan has been heard in Akhilesh’s rallies throughout November and the party, encouraged by the public response, made it into a song.

The BJP had adopted this tactic last month, with CM Adityanath launching a theme song titled ‘UP Number 1’ for its battle in 2022. The song sings praises of the Adityanath government and refers to state projects over the past four and half years. The song also credits Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his guidance and his ‘double engine government’.

Samajwadi Party is pulling out all stops to show Akhilesh as a better candidate to head the state while portraying Adityanath as an "outsider".

"In Gujarat, a Gujarati is made CM, in Maharashtra, a Marathi, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh," IP Singh, national spokesperson of SP is quoted as saying in a report by The Economic Times.

"He can be MP or MLA or can be made a minister at the Centre, but the most important post in the state should belong to a 'UP ka beta' (UP's son)," Singh said.

Earlier this month, SP also launched a perfume, 'Scent of Socialism', which it claims will dispel the lies of the BJP government. This is the first time that a political party has launched its own perfume.

Asked about the nature of the scent, Akhilesh Yadav said: "When people use it, they will smell socialism. The perfume will end hatred in 2022."

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