Akhilesh Yadav rebrands himself as 'Lord Ram' in Uttar Pradesh

The BJP leaders have been raking up the incident of firing on the 'karsevaks' at Ayodhya in 1990 when Samajwadi Party (SP) patron Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and calling SP president Akhilesh Yadav 'anti-Hindu' in their speeches ahead of the assembly polls in the state. However, some recent public meetings of SP and the SP-RLD joint rallies witnessed an attempt to change the perception about Akhilesh as was being projected by the saffron party.

At Thursday's joint rally of SP and RLD at Iglas in Aligarh district, Akhilesh and RLD president Jayant Chaudhary appeared on the posters as 'Ram-Laxman', who would 'finish' the 'demons' (read BJP) and none, including the leaders of the two parties, objected to the same. These posters were also distributed among the supporters at the rally.

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Even the local folk singers, who recited songs in the local dialect, referred to the two leaders as 'Ram-Laxman' and the crowd, which consisted of SP and RLD supporters, cheered whenever the reference was made.

In another recent SP rally at Raebareli, Akhlesh was likened to Lord Krishna.

Leaders of the SP and RLD said that Akhilesh and Jayant were like brothers just as Lord Rama and Laxman. ''There is nothing wrong in portraying them as such....they have joined hands to defeat the BJP, whose government is a symbol of misrule just as Rama and Luxman had finished the demons, who terrorised the people,'' said an SP leader in Aligarh.

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Sources in the SP said that the party was prepared to counter the BJP's attempts to portray Akhilesh as 'anti-Hindu' and 'pro-Muslim'. ''BJP wants to polarise the polls and therefore it is trying to project itself as the messiah of Hindus.....we have to thwart its plans,'' the SP leader added.

BJP leaders, including union home minister Amit Shah and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, at all their rallies, alleged that the previous regime of Akhilesh had favoured the Muslims. ''Hindus were not allowed to celebrate their festivals nor were they allowed to undertake the kanwar yatra....our government has changed all that...now Hindus can celebrate their festivals,'' Adityanath had recently said at a public meeting at Sonebhadra. He had also said that during Akhilesh's regime Muslims used to get more rations from the fair price shops.

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