Cattle 'strays' into elections in UP

Wandering cattle, which have become a menace to the farmers and the common people in Uttar Pradesh, have also stormed into the electoral politics in the state and fuelled a war of words between political rivals.

It all started, when a stray bull entered into a rally being addressed by the BSP supremo Mayawati a few days back and went on the rampage prompting her to accuse the BJP of ''conspiring'' against her party.

''BJP has been pushing stray cattle into my rallies to scare the people,'' she alleged.

On Saturday a stray bull entered into the crowds during a roadshow by Samajwadi Party (SP) president and his wife Dimple Yadav at Kannauj, about 150 kilometres from here. At least one cop and a few others were injured by the bull.

''This bull represents all others of its community....it must have come to complain thinking that it was a BJP rally,'' Akhilesh quipped apparently referring to an election meeting being addressed by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath not very far from Akhilesh's roadshow.

He later tweeted that the incident reflected that stray cattle had become a menace to the farmers and others.

Not to be outdone, Adityanath shot back by likening the bull to 'Nandi' (the carrier of Lord Shiva) and saying that it must have gone to the roadshow to take revenge from those, who encouraged illegal slaughterhouses.

The incidents also triggered alarm bells in the administration and the officials launched a drive to catch the stray cattle in Hardoi town, about 125 kilometres from here, a day before prime minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to address an election meeting there on Saturday.